Imprint
by Myrielle
Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the Indominus Rex hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 **IMPRINT**

It looked pretty much like an ostrich egg, Claire Dearing decided as she bent low, her perfectly powdered nose less than an inch from the warm transparent screen of the incubator. All right, maybe not as round as an ostrich egg and certainly a lot longer, but uncannily white and smooth, almost pure beneath the harsh glare of the laboratory lights. The second egg had been removed just minutes before, and it was the primary reason why she had been called down in her capacity as the Park Operations Manager. They had lost eggs before, but never one that cost twenty-six million dollars. The heartbeat had flatlined six hours before and the doctors could not detect any sign of movement. She had authorised pulling the plug, so to speak. Claire was just thankful that she didn't have to be present during the post-mortem, which was happening at that moment. At least at the stage of its death, the asset had been more or less fully formed and she doubted Henry would have trouble finding a reason why its heart had given out. She would then type out that reason in a couple of dozen emails and those would be the last words said for the asset that never was.

And that was why there wasn't a single doctor around when the egg started to hatch. It started with a fine crack, fine as a hair. It quickly grew into a spider's web as the shell bulged. Something was trying to push its way into the world and it was certainly doing it with gusto. Claire pursed her scarlet Yves St Laurent covered lips as she straightened up and looked around for someone, anyone. Vaguely she remembered staying away well away from the hospital during the respective births of her nephews. She had waited until they had been less pink, less squished—for want of a better word—more swaddled and not as formidably vulnerable before she had visited. Karen had been upset the first time; Claire had blamed it on work. The second time, neither of them had said anything.

"Excuse me," she called out to the nearest technician. The nametag introduced the person as 'Will Hofferson'. "Mr Hofferson," she breathed in relief, "the egg appears to be hatching."

Pale brown eyes blinked at her. Will was wearing the mandatory white protective coat which was part of the lab staff uniform but he wasn't wearing a tie and neither had he bothered with the top button of his shirt. And his collar was creased. Claire swiped a suddenly cool palm on the silk of her tailor-made skirt, the one she had worn three weeks before to a meeting with potential sponsors. Afterward, the Verizon representative—who had agreed to pay for an additional baby dinosaur petting exhibit and accompanying nursery equipped with state of the art medical facilities just for the additonal assets—had pulled her aside, complimented her on the cut and asked for the name of the shop which she had purchased it from. Everything, from her make-up to her hair to her clothing and even her shoes was an image of the multibillion-dollar company and park she represented. She was professional immaculate perfection and nothing, nothing could go wrong.

"Mr Hofferson," Claire repeated, an edge to her words. "That asset is hatching. Do something. What is the procedure for such an event?"

That seemed to press a few buttons. "They usually feed them when they come out of the shell," he blurted out, eyes just over her shoulders on the egg.

"Then I suggest that you bring some food and then fetch Dr Wu."

"He said none of them were to be disturbed. She wasn't supposed to have come this early. He said the hatching would take place next week."

An early achiever, her mother would have said. Claire herself had been a month premature. "You just couldn't wait to have a go at the world," her mother had whispered as she ruffled Claire's hair one last time before the wounds from the car crash took her. She had been thirteen and Karen had been twenty and away at college and their father whom they had never really known had given her a house and no heart to stay in. So Claire had achieved the best way she had known how. She studied ferociously, graduated early and gotten into Harvard. Her professor used to say that Claire mowed down the competition like lawn weeds. Claire used to shrug and simply say she wanted to do her best. It was an anchor, her armour. Being the best opened doors and gave her control. It gave her choices.

And right now, she had a choice to make with twenty-six million dollars weighing down on it. "Get me the food."

Before he left, Will unlocked a square hatch, the lid of the incubator. "They tend to scream a lot when they first come out of the egg. The doctors usually pick them up and take them to the nursery."

She knew where the nursery ward for newly hatched assets was, just one corridor down from where she was standing. "Go and get the food," she said tersely, trying to ignore the tight gnawing in her gut that told her something was bound to go wrong.

And since she was never wrong, it did happen. Sharp black claws a centimetre long raked through the fragile barrier of the shell and Claire found herself turning cold as she sucked in a harsh breath and looked into a bulging golden eye with a long black slit in the middle. 'Dragon eye,' she thought numbly, for once remembering that hideously boring fantasy movie about some hobbits and dwarves fighting a dragon which she had been forced to watch on the second worst date of her life. The worst date happened just two weeks before but that was not something she wanted to recall just yet. It was too raw.

"A sentiment that might apply perfectly to you," she found herself whispering as she stared, transfixed, mesmerised and horrified as the eye blinked again, flickering in quick succession. The claws flexed and suddenly fragments of shell were flying everywhere. Some smacked the screen with tiny audible thuds and Claire took an involuntary step back.

The asset screamed and lunged out of the remaining hollow of the egg. It was slimy, slippery and slipping and full of pulsing membranes and veins beneath shockingly pale scales. A tiny head whose shape bore a vague resemblance to the Tyrannosaurus Rex it shared genomes with reared up and Claire found herself the target of those huge amber eyes again. The dinosaur shrieked as it slid in a puddle of its own ooze, claws scrabbling and legs flailing as it squirmed in her direction.

'Shitshitshitshitshit. Where the hell is Hofferman?' Claire screamed internally as she looked wildly to her left. It was when she turned to her right that she spotted him. He stood three feet away, a small pink ball in his gloved hands, his mouth gaping. "Pick her up," Claire hissed. She was somewhat aware that the other lab techs had ceased work. In the background, the asset wailed and the sound made Claire's hair stand on end.

"I'm not supposed to touch them! I'll get Dr Wu. Here." And just like that, a ball of raw cold meat was shoved into her hand and Hofferman fled the scene. Claire decided that she was going to fire him, but later. Now, she had a screeching creature worth more money than all of them in this room combined would ever see to handle.

She had never met John Hammond, but his claim about being present for every single hatching was one that she was well aware of. Ignoring the fact that she was probably never going to be able to wear that morning's suit again, or at least the top half of it, Claire put the blob of food on the edge of the table, took a deep breath, clenched her teeth so hard that the pain in her jaw went up to her temples. And then she opened the latch, reached in with both hands and shuddered as her fingers closed around the cool thrashing body of the Indominus Rex. Sharp claws latched onto her skin and Claire bit her inner cheek against the multiple stings, tried not to notice too much the spindly fingers that grabbed at her wrists, the three-toed feet with the same dark claws that reached frantically for a foothold in her flesh. At least it stopped shrieking. She chose to focus on that.

Awkwardly, she held it up over the incubator, held it almost at arm's length and realised that this was one of the very few times in her life when she honestly had no idea what to do. Henry was coming, at least she thought he was. Or she could run like hell to the nursery and deposit this mess there. It was so tiny; they sold toy models of the T-Rex in the shop stores that were bigger than this. Then the dinosaur mewled, chittered at her and Claire felt something move in her chest when she felt the throaty vibrations against her palm and realised she was feeling its beating heart. Those huge eyes never moved from her face.

It was the sudden draft of air-conditioning that galvanised her into action. Dinosaurs were, surprisingly, warm-blooded but God only knew what possible conditions a premature one was born with. Claire did the only thing she knew to keep the asset alive and well. Against a backdrop of ear piercing yowls, she untangled one hand from the dinosaur, ripped open the top two buttons of her Donna Karen blouse and slipped the Indominus Rex in, pulling the silk carefully over its small body. She tried not to jerk as once more, the newborn tried to grip her chest and shoulder with one small arm while keeping its legs and other arm firmly wrapped around the hand that was supporting it. A little tail thumped incessantly against her. But she held it there securely, half-aware that she was shushing it under her breath, patting it awkwardly as she slowly added the edge of her jacket as an additional layer of warmth as well. "Calm down," she murmured, "just calm down." She could probably have used some of her own advice.

"You need to feed her."

Claire jumped when she realised that Owen Grady had gotten within a foot of her without her knowledge. It shouldn't have been possible but more adrenaline fired through her system and she felt a horrible melting pit in her belly as she stared at the tall raptor trainer who had been her worst date ever. Then the baby in her arms snarled and hissed so hard that Claire tightened her grip on it. No baby creature alive should have a mouthful of already visible sharp teeth or be able to snap its jaws with that much force minutes out of the shell or womb.

"She's defending you."

Was it just her or was he actually amused? But Owen's intense gaze, which shifted between her and the Indominus Rex, gave nothing away as he held out a bit of meat towards her. "Take it, Claire. Trust me, she's hungry but she will only take it from you."

She tried not to notice the warmth of his fingers brushing hers as she shakily took the tiny amount, no larger than half her thumb, and brought it close to the snout that was eagerly rooting about in the air, having scented food.

"Watch out for those teeth." Owen, when he was not being the asshat that he actually was, had a voice that reminded her of hot chocolate and warm syrup. At the moment though, Claire was utterly distracted by the small clumsy nips, the soft warbles and the fact that the little Rex seemed to be making some kind of effort to differentiate between her fingers and the minced meat. There were a couple of accidental bites, but the dinosaur never held on and was quick to release her fingers.

By the time Owen handed her the last of the food, the baby blinked its hypnotic golden eyes lazily at her before it curled back up under her blouse, wrapping its tail over her wrist and tucking its head well away from the light. Claire had never had pets, but she had stroked a friend's cat once and the vibrations against her chest reminded her of the cat's purring.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Owen spoke, breaking the spell.

"What are you talking about Mr Grady?" Why in the world did she sound so tense? She needed to relax, show him she wasn't bothered. She needed to sound suitably grateful too.

"Owen, call me Owen," he had said the first time she had been introduced to him. She had liked that, had liked the way his eyes crinkled up at the corners and the immediate warmth in his smile. He was smiling at her like that once more and Claire knew that yes, she had missed this and yes, she was twice a fool and not really in control of herself, not yet anyway.

"I'm talking about imprinting." He stepped closer, she stepped back and the small of her back brushed the incubator. It was warm and so was her face. "For all intents and purposes, you're the mother."

If she didn't speak, her mouth would just drop open and she would look like an idiot. "No, no. There's no imprinting," she denied vigorously, trying not to remember how the baby had desperately squirmed towards and screamed at her. "It was hungry and now it's not and it can go to the nursery now."

"Claire, trust me. You're the mother. Although I'm not entirely sure what species your baby is—"

"Mr Grady!"

He laughed, the sleepy dinosaur she was cradling poked its head out and gave a warning snap, and then the lab was filled with several doctors with Henry Wu leading the pack as they swarmed around her. At first they tried to take the Indominus Rex. Three doctors had to suffer bleeding fingers and an especially nasty gash that would require stitches before they gave up. Instead, they made Claire go to the nursery where she tried unsuccessfully to put the baby in a specially prepared hutch. Her eardrums were numb and her hands covered in welts by the time she gave up. In the end, Claire was given a private office replete with the nicest chair in the building so she that could lean back and rest while she hushed the frantic baby until it settled down and dozed fitfully against her. Occasionally Claire would look down to find sleepy half-opened eyes regarding her with what seemed to be suspicion.

She was beginning to realise she smelled a bit pungent, probably thanks to the slimy afterbirth type liquid that had coated the baby. But at least it was sleeping. Once it was really one hundred percent in deep sleep, she would deposit it into the hutch, go back to her apartment, change and settle the other one hundred things that had to get done by that day.

In the end, Claire managed to actually keep to the plan. She just hadn't reckoned on an emergency call from Henry Wu four hours after she left the lab. She didn't need him to say anything; the high-pitched shrieking in the background said it all. "I'm on my way," she said grimly, ending the call.

Owen Grady had mentioned imprinting. Of all the dinosaurs in the park, only Owen had been involved in a programme that actually involved any intensive interaction between a dinosaur and its handler. He had been present at the hatching of the Velociraptor clutch. Mr Masrani knew the finer details of the programme; she just saw to whatever they needed and ensured the paddock was well-maintained and well-staffed. She had no excess to any of the reports he would have needed to make. And as the Park Operations Manager, Claire knew nothing about imprinting beyond what she could find in a dictionary.

As she waited for the lift to ascend, Claire cursed Owen Grady under her breath. Then, she called him before cowardice and pride got the better of her. After all, this was for the asset's sake. The multimillion-dollar asset that had, of all the people on this island, imprinted on her.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful response. It was such a lovely surprise and I hope this next chapter proves to be as entertaining. Many of you mentioned Claire and seeing how she develops which is great because that will be the main focus of this story actually. The romance will certainly be there; I'm bursting at the seams with Claire/Owen feels, but I must confess that I really like Claire and hope to do her justice. Once again, thanks!_

 **IMPRINT**

 **II.**

Owen had been busy, so her very brief message had gone straight to voicemail. She should have known though. All assets, save for the gentle herbivores that were allowed to roam over acres of land, were fed promptly between the hours of six and seven in the evening. When she had called him, it had been two minutes before six and she would have bet her brand new Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe that he was already standing on the walkway above the paddock, clicking to "his girls", as he referred to them, and getting them to stand in line for their food. 'He could probably make them roll over and beg,' Claire thought sourly as she hastily pulled into the first available lot. He certainly seemed to have thought that she would do that for him. 'Board shorts. What kind of man shows for a date in board shorts?'

The kind who probably expected to have a good time out and sex as casual as his outfit. Claire grimaced as she scuffed the tip of her black patent Prada pumps on the step up from the curb. How could she have been so wrong about him? He had seemed so decent, just like he had been hours ago when he had helped her with the dinosaur. Why couldn't he have been there for the asset to imprint on? Claire groaned audibly as she watched the blinking lights of the lift indicate just how many more floors she had to go. "What was he doing there anyway?" she muttered, belatedly realising that she had a new jacket on. She shrugged it off, tucked it over an arm. She wasn't about to have another piece of clothing shredded, not if she could help it. Owen Grady had hardly set foot in the lab since the Velociraptors had been mature enough to be moved outside into a paddock.

A quick look at her phone confirmed that it was now twenty minutes past six. The lift doors parted and Claire realised that everyone was staring at her. In the background, she could hear angry high-pitched screams. The looks they were giving her were uncannily familiar. They were, she realised with a sinking heart, the same looks she gave parents who couldn't control their miscreant offspring in public places. Suppressing the sudden foolish urge to say it wasn't her fault, Claire took a deep breath, straightened her spine and went off to the nursery.

"She won't eat," was the first thing that Henry said. His shining smooth forehead was deeply furrowed for once. "And she bit everyone who put their hands in to touch her. Her heartbeat has accelerated and it isn't showing any sign of slowing down. She is deeply distressed."

All this Claire was able to process. What made her stop her smooth march forward was the sight of the Indominus Rex. The "Untameable King", that was what the name meant. It had seemed such a fitting title at that time, a perfect match for the budget and vision that Masrani spoke of at that time. Maybe one day, that would happen. But right now, what Claire was seeing was a tiny, bewildered little animal who ran from side to side in what she realised now was a nicely warmed glass cage. There were faint streaks of blood on the floor and sides.

"She tried to scratch her way out. And some of that blood belongs to our staff," Henry added unhelpfully.

Clearing her throat, she looked quickly at the man who was arguably the world's leading geneticist and he took her silent cue to give her some space. The moment she stepped into its line of sight, the baby fell silent. One step. Two steps. Three steps. She could do this. Claire bent down, put a hand on the glass. And the baby who had imprinted on her opened its mouth in a snarl and out came a hiss quite unlike any other on earth. She froze. That tiny tail that had been curled close to her heart previously was now thrashing from side to side. What had she done wrong?

"Lawn weeds," she whispered to herself. She was Claire Dearing. She never stopped until she won. With hands that shook slightly, she unlocked the door to the hutch and reached in slowly. The dinosaur rewarded her efforts by lashing out with its claws. "Hey," Claire snapped, every single intimidating high school and college teacher that she'd ever had springing to mind. The pale Rex skittered backwards into a corner, head lowered but with its mouth still open. Claire did not like the way she held those tiny arms in front of her; she especially did not like those long middle claws and the way those fingers curled. They reminded her of eagle talons.

Once more she tried to reach for the asset, more assertively this time, but it scrambled out of reach. And while it wasn't screaming quite so loudly anymore, Claire knew distress cries when she heard them. She was scaring the baby. She had never been good with babies. Never. She did not like them and somehow, the sneaky little buggers always knew and the feeling was mutual.

Retracting her arms, Claire let them fall into her lap, trying to ignore the multiple pairs of eyes that were boring holes into the back of her head, her shoulders, basically whatever piece of her the whole nursery could see. She wouldn't put it past staff from the other wards to have come round to watch the show. "Focus, Dearing. Focus," she mouthed quietly to herself. Somewhere in her brain and life experiences was something that would help her. She just needed to find it.

Karen. Karen had been a natural mother. She had raised her children without any help. "No nanny," Karen had declared proudly as she cuddled Grey to her chest. "Aren't you glad of that baby?" she cooed and Claire made a face in response.

"He doesn't even know what you're saying."

"Oh he does. It's the sound. There's more to language than just words. Don't they teach you that at Harvard?" quipped her sister who had been educated at Yale.

Owen spoke to his raptors. She had seen him at the paddock calling them by name, praising them, sometimes scolding them. "It's important that they know their names and equally important that they know my voice." He had shared that particular bit of information during their failure of a date and Claire prayed that both Owen and Karen were right. At least something good would have come of it—her disastrous date, that was. Grey looked like a sweet boy from the occasional photographs Karen sent and although Claire would be the first to confess that she didn't know her nephews half as well as a decent aunt ought to, they were family and therefore quite beyond reproach unless they showed her otherwise.

Kneeling was starting to take a toll on her knees, so Claire slipped off her shoes and folded her legs beneath her as she sat in front of the hatch. "So, where do we start?" she began, trying to suppress the feeling that she was a massive idiot for speaking in English to a reptilian creature of prehistoric origin. Apart from the Tyrannosaurus Rex genome, she had no idea what else had gone into the cocktail that had produced the Indominus Rex. "Well, maybe we could talk about my day. After you slept, I had a meeting. But before that, I had to go change because you...smeared me in afterbirth albumen. That's a first. Other babies have only peed or vomited on me..."

For once, she didn't bother keeping track of time. Instead, she just talked and talked. She would take out her phone and read aloud from news articles online if she ran out of things to say. All that mattered was that she kept her voice soft and calm and steady. And surprisingly, as she searched for useless bits of information to share with the baby, she found herself calming down as well. She had time, all the time in the world, she reminded herself.

Claire was halfway through regaling the dinosaur with her weekly grocery list and the importance of eating organic although it was expensive when she realised that it didn't look quite so tense. Those hands had lowered, and the claws were no longer pointing upwards at her. The baby's mouth was also closed and it was actually cocking its head at an angle. 'It's listening to me,' Claire thought. Something surged through her; she felt it from the bottom of her feet to her scalp. She didn't know what it was, but she knew with startling clarity that she felt quite, quite wonderful.

 _"It's the sound. There's more to language than just words."_

Putting her faith on a hunch was not something Claire Dearing did often at all. This time though, she went with it. From her immaculately lined lips came a sound that made the baby perk up and stand straighter. Those impossibly large eyes became even larger. And Claire warbled again softly to the dinosaur, curling her tongue, clucking, vibrating her vocal chords as best she knew to produce the same sound that the dinosaur had made when she had fed it. "Come on," she murmured, ignoring the slight wave of trepidation that arose as she reached back into the hutch once again. The baby chittered in response and she answered it right back. She had no idea what she was saying but she only cared that it worked. "Let's go home. I'll make you a nice raw salmon kebab—I'm assuming you can eat fish—and you can watch me fix a salad. I'm sorry I left you behind today, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Soft scales touched her and Claire paused for a moment, let the baby spread its fingers with those wicked claws over her skin that was already criss-crossed with welts. It blinked those golden eyes at her once again and then it was airborne and in her hands and then in her arms and she popped a button in her haste to tuck it inside her blouse once again. "I got you, I got you," she chanted softly as it nipped her shoulder before settling down.

It was painful, standing up and making sure her numbed calves did not give out. The thought of putting her feet back into her pumps was less than welcome. But she managed, as always.

"Claire, that dinosaur cannot leave this laboratory." Henry looked as apologetic as he sounded but she knew he was not about to budge.

"I cannot put her back inside. You saw how she behaved. Would you like to tell Mr Masrani that the live asset which successfully hatched died because you insisted on keeping her in a lab?"

Henry just looked at her and Claire realised that she had raised her voice.

Both of them turned around when the doors to the nursery opened. In walked Owen and Claire watched the way his eyes ran over everything and everyone. He missed nothing. "Are you hurt?"

"Just scratched."

"Claire managed to calm the hatchling down but it cannot leave the lab. And neither can she leave it."

She didn't like the finality in his tone at all. "Wait, I can't stay here. I have a job to do and I cannot do it from this lab."

The geneticist pinched the bridge of his nose and stifled a sigh. "I'll call Mr Masrani and explain the situation. That dinosaur is too young to be exposed to the world outside. It could catch a virus. Even an insect bite might kill it."

Claire looked to Owen but she already knew the answer. "He's right," the raptor handler concurred and Claire closed her eyes, trying hard not to resent the quiet bundle on her chest that she was warming.

"Henry, if you don't mind then. I need to speak to Mr Grady for a bit about this imprinting business..."

There were people still watching. Claire looked at them and a couple of minutes later, only the staff that actually worked in the nursery remained.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have steel in your gaze?" He looked rather impressed.

She'd been called ice queen and frigid bitch countless times behind her back and once to her face. "They didn't say it quite as nicely as you did," she stated matter-of-factly, daring Owen to feel sorry for her.

"Dumb bastards," he quipped and in spite of herself, Claire curled the corner of her mouth up in a half-smile. "I got your message only after I finished feeding the girls. You've done quite nicely for yourself though."

The doubt she felt must have shown on her face because Owen's grin softened into a look of concern. "Tell me what happened."

So she told him everything. "It's...She's just an animal but she was angry with me. I think she was upset that I had left her here."

"Of course she was. As far as she's concerned, you are her only source of comfort and security. If you are not there, every instinct she possesses will tell her she's not safe. The doctors should have called me in on this one."

Claire bit her lip and tried to tamp down the flush she felt creeping up her neck. "I guess it would have been better for everyone if she had imprinted on you instead," she said stiffly but Owen stopped her with a shake of his head.

"That is not what I'm saying. I'm talking about the imprinting process. They should never have tried to touch her without you around. Hell, even with you around they shouldn't try anyway. Animal behaviour is my area of expertise. I could have stopped them from traumatising her."

She almost thanked him, but for some reason she couldn't. It would be saying too much in some strange way she didn't want to think about. "Are there any books I can read? Any videos? About imprinting and what I'm supposed to do."

"Are you asking for help, Claire?" he asked, green eyes twinkling.

Oh no. Owen the Flirt was back again. "I can manage the research on my own, thank you. I just thought you might have recommendations for reliable sources of information."

"I've been there and done that." His grin widened in direct proportion to the glare she was giving him. "I could show you the ropes." That last word positively dripped with gleeful suggestiveness.

Owen Grady could probably read the telephone directory and turn it into audio porn. As for why she would even think of that, Claire blamed it on his proximity and the fact that she really liked how the sleeves of his white T-shirt hugged the muscles of his arms. She almost didn't care that it was creased. Claire Dearing, superficial space cadet, she damned herself silently. "That's not funny."

He chuckled. "It's a little funny."

"Mr Grady—"

"Owen," he corrected at once.

"Fine, Owen. I need some help looking after this dinosaur until the imprinting process is over."

Owen frowned slightly and she realised she had said something wrong. "I mean, it can't last forever right? Don't all animals eventually leave their mothers and become independent?"

Then the frown vanished and he was as easy-going as before. "That's true. So, you're going to be here for a week. Let's see if we can find somebody to talk to about your temporary accommodations. We are going to need that hutch because she'll want to sleep next to you but you might crush her..."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 **IMPRINT**

 **III.**

'A week, my ass.' Claire grimaced as she surveyed her new quarters once again. It had been sanitised and was sanitised once a day to make sure that it was safe for the asset. The whole place had been baby-proofed as well. All furniture with sharp edges had been removed, the platform bed-stand had been made to go as well and now she had a lovely king-sized mattress on the ground to sleep on because that would make her eye level with the hutch they had brought in. The fridge had a door lock, just in case. Someone would bring specially prepared food for the dinosaur five times a day; apparently babies, especially of the reptilian kind, ate a lot.

Placing a hand on the sleeping Rex snuggled against her chest, Claire carefully stretched out her legs and rotated her ankles. Sitting on a plush cushion and typing at the low plastic coffee table that wouldn't have looked out of place in a child's room was a pain in the butt, literally. But the dinosaur wanted to be held while it slept and putting it in the hatch where it could see her had only triggered distressed cries and yelps from the baby. Claire didn't dare to hold it with one hand while she typed at the large mahogany table in the study room because if she dropped the baby, its bones would undoubtedly break. Hence, she had come up with the best possible solution. It had required sacrificing four of her largest Hermes scarves to make a sling (she had YouTubed how to tie a secure makeshift sling) which she could tuck the baby into. If it gave, the dinosaur would drop into her lap and there was thick soft cushioning on either side to protect it even if it rolled off before she could grab it. That way no one, including her career, would be hurt.

Settling back down, Claire continued to go through the dozens of emails in her inbox. She then Skyped a few meetings, one of which was with Mr Masrani to keep him up to date on the latest figures but she had a suspicion that since her boss, who never really cared about figures, had asked for the meeting simply so that he could see how his latest asset was doing. Plus, it amused him to see her babysitting. "Motherhood seems to suit you Claire," he had joked and because he was such a nice man, one of the few who hadn't assumed that her being a female subordinate meant that she should naturally put out, she let that slide.

She spoke to Henry to give him updates on the asset's progress—it had been two weeks already and finally, the little bumps and horns on her back and the top of her head were finally hardening. Plus, her scales were thickening and the disconcerting network of blue veins was finally getting harder to see.

After putting down the phone with Zara, Claire realised that it was only seven in the evening. Usually her days ended at about nine at night and if she hadn't eaten by then, she would make supper for herself back at her apartment because everyone else would have eaten. She knew Lowery, Vivian and Nick often had dinner together and it had been nice when they used to invite her. But Claire knew that being colleagues and friends was a hard balancing act, especially when she was the boss and so she had used work and meetings as an excuse.

Warm breath puffed against her neck as the precious bundle squirmed, seeking a more comfortable sleeping position. "You little fusspot," Claire whispered. "How many of the other assets can say that they've slept in silk and worn Hermes, hmm?" Against the vivid gold, crimson and blue of the scarves, the white scales stood out in sharp relief. Henry had been adamant that the asset did not have albinism, but he wouldn't explain the colour. Oh, he'd tried to cover it up but Claire hadn't gotten to where she was today without being able to smell a lie and truth be told, for all his brilliance, Henry Wu was not a very good liar. Out of curiosity anyway, Claire had tried searching the Internet for clues. She hadn't found anything relevant, but something had stuck in her mind after those three hours of reading. Predators that were born white when the rest of the species wasn't usually didn't make it in the wild. Either they were singled out and killed before adolescence or they lacked the natural colour needed for camouflage to stalk their prey. They were different, and that difference usually meant death.

"It's a good thing you were born here then." A golden eye opened and Claire used her index finger to scratch the top of the dinosaur's head. Immediately, it closed its eyes and purred. "Different can be good you know. It can make you stronger." She knew a thing or two about that. When she was five, she realised that having red hair sort of made one a target for mean comments. Cool boys didn't like girls who regularly topped the level cohort. Once, someone had told her that she ought to wear pantsuits to work. "You'll fit in more," he advised. "You should ditch the heels too." Claire had gone as far as to actually purchase one such outfit. She put it on at home, looked at herself in the mirror and proceeded to bin the outfit. She gave the flats to her sister, stuck to her skirts and heels and worked twice as hard to prove herself. "It's not fair," Karen commiserated over the phone.

"I know," Claire had replied. "But I can do this. I got this. I'm going to wear what I want and no one will take that from me."

"Seriously though, three inch heels?"

"I like them." And that was the end of that.

Her stomach rumbled then and Claire remembered her original plan: dinner. As gently as she could, she moved to the fridge, trying to angle her body in such a way that the cold air wouldn't touch the dinosaur and wake it. No such luck. The asset's eyes sprung open and immediately it lifted its snout, eagerly sniffing the air. It growled and stuck its nose back under the sling when Claire took out some wasabi that was still in a little plastic container.

"Sensitive to smell, are we?" She stopped when she found herself crinkling her nose at the dinosaur. It was one thing to talk to it—that was entirely necessary, Owen had assured her. That had scientific basis. Making faces at it was...irrelevant. She had to watch herself there. The next item that came out from the fridge was a lovely piece of salmon the colour of sunset. Claire sliced it carefully, putting the pieces on a sparkling white porcelain plate. "Try not to drool," she said dryly at the baby who had stretched out the full length of its neck as it peered down at the fish. When she was done, she washed the knife and board, poured herself half a crystal tumbler of Languedoc rosé and settled back down at the coffee table to eat. And Owen Grady thought she didn't drink, Claire scoffed as she took a sip. She did drink. Selectively. Specifically champagne and wines. Okay, some wines.

The dinosaur nipped her in its impatience to get at the snack that it knew was coming its way. "No," Claire said firmly, fixing the little creature with a gaze that she hoped did have steel in it. "No biting." She waited until it tried again. A gentle tap on its snout saved her skin and she repeated herself again. "No."

The baby hissed and she had to do it a third time. Her fourth time saw some success. The dinosaur fixed her with a stare that she recognised as somewhat pissed and it might have chomped its jaws in the air. But it didn't bite her. "Good girl," she murmured as she gave it the fish, then remembered that she needed to praise effusively so that the animal would might learn a different kind of reward apart from just gratifying its appetite. "That's a good girl," she repeated and rubbed the baby's head, which made it purr like a large vibrating handphone.

"Do not ever allow her to bite you," Owen had said right from the start and Claire could see that he was deadly serious. "At three months old the raptors could take a chunk out of a person's arm. And what you have there is going to be bigger, a lot bigger."

Claire wanted to say that by the time the Indominus Rex was that old, it would be safely behind glass and steel in a paddock. But then she remembered how distraught it had been in the hutch and how angry it had been with her. She also recalled the tight look of disapproval on Owen's face when she had told him what she knew about the hybrid. So she shut her mouth and swallowed the words.

"Don't hit her either. She's going to be stronger than you in no time and you don't want to establish your leadership that way."

"I never intended to use force. So what do I do then?"

"Just be firm and consistent. And keep calm. She'll know if you are agitated and that will unbalance her. Strength over others can be shown in many ways." And then he had leaned down closer and smiled that smile which always made her knees go weak, not that she would ever show it. If she did, Owen Grady would become even more insufferable. She already suspected all the hot air that went into the making of his massive ego was partly responsible for global warming. "Just do what you always do. I know for a fact that you scare most of the men on this island."

She should have been insulted. But somehow he turned it into a compliment. "Most?"

"Most of them." His eyes had locked on hers and she knew she couldn't look away, not until he did. For a moment the easy summer warmth had dropped from his face, replaced by something so intense it made the air between them crack like lightning.

Not him though; she knew he wasn't scared of her although he had never asked for a second date. "It's not like I wanted a second date anyway," Claire scoffed as she fed the Rex another piece of fish. She managed to get dinner to herself when she opened up the container of wasabi. The dinosaur hissed and squirmed and pushed its head against her until it was practically under her armpit. "Your loss." Claire tapped its belly and the baby growled. "You're so prickly, like cactus."

Halfway through her meal, her phone buzzed. It was Owen. Ignoring the sudden jolt to her system, Claire touched the surface of her phone and put him on speaker. "Hello Mr Grady."

"Owen," he sighed and she was glad he wasn't there to see the grin she couldn't quite help. "You are such a tease."

"You wish."

"Oh I do, I most certainly do."

"Is there a point to this call or are you just checking up on us as usual?"

"Us now is it? At least it's a big improvement from "the asset and I"."

"Owen..." she warned.

"I love it when you say my name like that. Speaking of names, have you given her one yet?"

Claire stuffed a piece of salmon into her mouth, mostly to cover her frustrated groan. He had been harping at her to name the asset since day one. "No. I think she knows when I'm addressing her."

"She needs a name, Claire."

"No, she doesn't."

"Littlefoot."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Lassie."

"Isn't she the wrong species for that name?"

"Barney."

"I'd rather call her Owen."

"Now that you mention it, it has a nice ring."

"I'm going to put the phone down now."

"Did she learn anything new today?"

He was kind of smooth, she had to give him that. "Actually, yes. I think she understands the word 'no', something you apparently haven't learned."

On the other end of the line, Owen laughed.

By the time they were finished, it was half past eight. She only realised it because the Rex popped her head out and fixed her with those big eyes that Claire was beginning to think of as being rather pretty. They could be scary, especially when the baby got upset. Luckily, the latter seemed to happen only infrequently. "I have to go now. She's getting restless and I think she wants her music."

Owen knew she played music for the dinosaur. He had teased her but she brushed it off. After all, music soothed the savage breast—not beast, as was often misquoted—and if the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic couldn't do that, she doubted Owen's recommendations of 50 Cent and Eminem would get the job done either. Once, she had played a guilty pleasure of hers for the baby but "Cherrybomb" had made it scream so she simply stuck to classical.

"Does she do that often?"

"What? Get restless?"

"No, does she remind you when you forget your schedule with her?"

She felt the hairs on her arms and neck stand. "Owen, she's just two weeks old."

"Does she?"

A luminous number of the clock on the wall shifted. It was now thirty-six minutes past eight. The baby huffed and bobbed its head at her before it chittered. Then, it turned to look directly at the silver Bose Wave music system player before turning back to her. For a long moment, Claire just stared at the baby.

"I slept through my alarm yesterday. She screeched until I woke up to take her out of the hatch. And she was right on the dot. She's looking the the music player now."

She could practically hear Owen thinking. "I managed to get footage of what happened in the lab the day she imprinted on you. I'll review it again tonight and come by tomorrow."

"Henry said..."

"I'll get them to disinfect me before that. What do you normally have for lunch?"

Sharp claws pricked her skin as the dinosaur laid its arm on her wrist. "I'll have anything you have," Claire said, distracted. "I need to go now."

"I'll see you tomorrow. Good night, Claire."

"Good night, Owen."

The dinosaur purred contentedly as she switched on the music. Claire settled onto the bed, looking down at the pale creature in her arms. For such a little thing, she remembered a hell of a lot of detail. Within four hours she had figured out how to walk, run and use her claws for defense. Nature had taught her that... and Henry too, Henry and his team. "What did he put into you?" she whispered as she touched the hard bumps on the dinosaur's back. Osteoderms, he had called them. The Tyrannosaurus Rex didn't have any of those. She had called its handlers just to make doubly sure. "Nope, not our Rexy" was the response.

Rexy. It was an obvious choice, but sort of catchy. "Well, that one's taken." Gently, she stroked its side, enjoying the rise and fall of its flank under her palm. It had grown four inches in two weeks. She wondered when she would be unable to do this, when it would be too dangerous for her to hold the dinosaur this way. "Maybe Mr Grady is right," she said softly to the baby as its head drooped, those big eyes fighting to stay open. "Maybe you do need a name."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, here's the next chapter and voila, the I-Rex's name is featured. Thanks so much for the suggestions and please don't be offended if I chose a different name though. I was pleasantly surprised to see someone guess the rationale for Claire's choice though (Yay! And that will be more developed in the next chapter). Thank you once again for so much enthusiasm and support, I still have trouble believing it! Those of you who've complimented me on my writing style, I appreciate that so much and it's really encouraging. Updates in the future might be slower though. My leave from work is ending and I have to go back soon. But I'll keep working at this. I love writing Claire/Owen and Momma Claire/Baby I-Rex._

 _Some common threads came up in reviews so here are my replies. There's general speculation about a villain. Of course there's one: his name is Hoskins. Will Gray and Zach meet the I-Rex? Unlikely but I might be able to work it in. Are the raptors going to show up? Play dates will be scheduled._

 **IMPRINT**

 **IV.**

It had been a terrible date. In the immediate aftermath of everything Claire had repeatedly told herself, in between meetings and presentations and inspections and hounding security as to why the supposedly fail-safe fences were not actually all that fail-safe, that it was Owen who had been a terrible date. It was, she admitted to herself as she stared at her wardrobe, an awfully flimsy lie, like putting a band-aid over a wound that needed stitches. There were only so many times she could blame it on the board shorts. Granted, he hadn't been great but then again, she hadn't been that great either.

On the cushion where she had put it, the Indominus Rex looked curiously at her, twitching its head at angles occasionally as she rummaged through the clothing which she had asked Zara to bring over. She hadn't asked for any jackets and common sense told her that wearing a jacket in her apartment was downright bloody ridiculous but damn it, Owen Grady made her nervous in a way that brought back old insecurities and she needed to get armoured. She'd already put on eyeliner, mascara, lipstick and in the process discovered that the baby dinosaur was actually very fond of cosmetics. It had started with an innocent sniff and a curious chitter. "You like this?" Claire had been inordinately pleased as she lifted the tiny thing in one hand. With the other, she held up her Estee Lauder lipstick that came in a shade called 'Heavenly'. "Maybe it's a girl thing."

The Rex had sniffed the lipstick enthusiastically. It was the arch of her neck that gave her away and Claire whipped the stick back in time to prevent the baby from taking a sizeable chomp out of it. "Okay, maybe not such a girl thing," she mumbled. "You stay right there. Stay," she said firmly, raising her index finger as she stepped back from the cushion. She didn't reward it with food when it obeyed; lunch for the baby had just been served forty-five minutes ago. Instead, she had taken the blouse she put in the hutch and dropped it on the cushion for the baby to roll and dig around in. Claire would have preferred to wash it, but the only way the dinosaur would sleep in the hatch was if it had something of hers inside with it.

With five minutes left before twelve—Owen had sent a message saying he would be there by twelve—Claire bit her lip, cursed when she remembered she was wearing lipstick and licked her teeth clean of pink stains as she grabbed a navy blue blouse. It was ribbed and had a scooped neck, but nothing else fancy even though it was pretty and made of the softest cotton in the world. She slid it on, checked her hair in the mirror and decided that she looked nice. The skirt she had on was charcoal grey and the colours made the red of her hair stand out. The floor felt cool beneath the soles of her bare feet; there were no shoes allowed in the apartment, not with the baby around. Any visitors would have to leave their shoes at the start of the corridor even before they were let in.

Two minutes to twelve. Claire took a deep breath and sat herself on the couch. The baby came forward. Claire frowned, told it to stay and was instantly ignored. "No, stay," she instructed as she sat it back down on the cushion. She had to do it five times before the baby listened. "Okay, good. Good girl." Scratching it under the chin, she smiled as she listened to its purrs; they seemed louder now than just the night before. "Come here." The dinosaur jumped on her and Claire grabbed the sling, slipping it on and securing the baby inside. "At least you're here." Big golden eyes stared into hers. "This is not a second date," she whispered and the Rex chittered in response, as though it knew what she was saying.

Driven by a sudden bout of nerves, Claire walked the length of the small apartment as though she could move away from the memory of the last time she had shared a meal with Owen Grady. She had read him wrongly, had focused only on what she knew and liked. She should have known when he had suggested having dinner at the Sunrio Tequila Bar and Mexican Restaurant. Claire would have opted for Nobu or Winston's Steakhouse but told herself at least it was better than Dave and Buster's. She had panicked when she had seen his outfit, realising that she looked grossly overdressed while trying to stem a flood of annoyance at both herself and him. Everything just when downhill from there. She wanted to stick with topics she knew to be safe; he wanted to talk about topics that were alien to her. He did listen but she could see that he was bored. She said 'asset', he said 'my girls' and Claire wondered how two people who were as driven and dedicated to their jobs could be so fundamentally different.

Her father used to say she was naïve and Claire hated it whenever she proved him right.

When Owen had offered to buy her tequila shots, Claire had already decided on how she would get out of this date. "I'm on a diet," she said and watched something in his face close because she was living up to the reputation she had on this island and knew that would be the end of it. When she said she needed to leave half an hour later, he offered to send her home but she told him that she had driven, so thank you but no.

Claire decided that she would never see Owen Grady again if she could help it. "I suppose you are as good a reason as any." The Indominus Rex caught her fingers that were tickling its stomach and dug too sharp claws into them. That was when the bell rang.

"Hi," she greeted as she opened the door. Or at least, she had been planning to say that when the Indominus Rex screamed and opened its mouth all the way to show Owen its sharp teeth. Then it tried to jump out of the sling and launch itself at him.

"No, no, bad girl!" Claire grabbed the baby and spun around. "Stop, stop it!" She tried to make the dinosaur look at her but it was too busy glaring bloody murder over her shoulder at Owen. It spat and hissed and bit the empty air. Then it bit her in frustration. Teeth ripped into skin and sank down into the fleshy bit between her thumb and forefinger. "Ouch!"

"Put her down."

Tearing her eyes away from the bleeding marks on her hand, Claire looked at him, startled. The door was now closed and Owen was standing just inside the apartment. "What?"

"Put her down and make her back up." His voice was completely calm and he looked very alert but relaxed as well. Calm but assertive, that was what he said. That was how she was in a roomful of corporate sharks. That was how she ate them before they ate her. "You're in charge."

The baby yelped when she placed it on the floor but then focused again on Owen. It darted forward.

"No." She stepped into its path, blocking it. "No."

It hissed at her and Claire was reminded of Zach when he was five-years-old and screaming at Karen and Jared because they wouldn't let him have a new toy. The only and unfortunately biggest difference was that Zach wouldn't have turned his parents into chew toys in his frustration. 'If she had been bigger, she could have taken my fingers off.'

That thought might have paralysed most people. Claire Dearing was not most people. "Back up," she said forcefully, careful not to yell. The Rex tried to go left and she stopped it again. Each time it moved, she did and she made sure she stepped forward, kept the baby moving back. Eventually, she herded it into the hall onto the cushion. It looked like a tiny mythical monster, standing on beige suede with its tail thrashing from side to side. It tried to look past her at Owen but Claire moved into its line of sight. "No."

She realised she was sweating slightly and her hand was radiating pain. But something told her not to stop just yet.

"Watch her tail and mouth. When she calms down, you can let her be."

He had moved closer up behind her. It felt like support although Claire had no idea why Owen had done that. So she stood her ground and kept it up. It was like some kind of weird Mexican standoff, except that instead of cowboys and outlaws, it was her versus a dinosaur the size of a rabbit. 'A rabbit with razor teeth and claws,' she thought and it was so ridiculous she almost laughed.

It was never going to happen. And then suddenly, it did. The dinosaur backed down and Claire knew that it was a question of size, that she had won because she was bigger and she wouldn't always be bigger, but it didn't matter, at least for now because she had won. "Oh," she breathed when the baby sat back down and stopped showing its teeth.

"Reach behind and take my hand. Make it clear to her that I belong to you."

This was not the time for her stomach to knot itself into ribbons—in a good way—as she grasped his wrist and his fingers slid over her skin. "Where do you want me?" he asked softly and Claire swallowed hard, only because she knew Owen couldn't quite see it.

"What?"

"Well, we can't just stand here," he said and Claire dragged her mind out of the temporary gutter it had crawled into.

She manoeuvred Owen to the couch, keeping herself between the Rex and him. Each time it tensed, she warned it with a firm "No" and a raised index finger, using the hand that wasn't currently bleeding all over Owen. The few feet to the couch felt like forever and she couldn't believe they were quite done until Owen removed a cushion cover and pressed it to her wound.

"We can get the medical kit after she's settled down more. But this is good, this is damned good."

His praise washed over her like water after a draught and she realised the reason why he looked so proud was because of her. He was proud of her. The smile on her face was probably too broad by half but Claire figured this time it was all right. She had gotten a dinosaur to listen to her, she who had never had a pet and occasionally fantasised about keeping a potted plant.

"What did I do wrong?" she asked after a few moments, wincing as Owen peeled back the ruined cotton cover. Blood welled out to fill the puncture marks but it was less than before. She tried not to visibly flinch as he pressed down again.

"Geez Claire, let yourself enjoy the moment. You did almost everything right."

"A person should not rest on their laurels."

"No. But they do need to rest once in awhile, period." The way he looked at her made her feel like she was made of glass and suddenly there was a lump in her throat. She fought the urge to squirm, to rub her thighs together against the treacherous warm flush that was settling between them. It must be those hands of his on hers. They were big and broad, and looked tough, a working man's hands.

She was in so much trouble.

They sat there quietly under the watchful eyes of the Indominus Rex who had a distinctly sulky look on its face. Maybe she was humanising it too much; an animal was an animal after all and they couldn't feel emotions like a person, at least not the entire spectrum. Could they? Claire wondered. She chittered softly to the baby and even though it didn't answer her, it stopped staring at Owen and shifted its attention back to her.

"I like how you do that. It sounds pretty much like she does." Owen narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the baby. "Her vocalisations remind me of the raptors though."

"They do?"

"Especially the way she opens her mouth. A T-Rex can't open its mouth that wide. They wouldn't tell me what else was in her, said it was classified. But I don't think I'm mistaken. There are other parts of her which don't belong to a T-Rex or a raptor either."

The raptors were supposed to be the smartest animals in the park. Claire had ordered changes to be made thrice to the paddock. Higher walls, more complicated bolts and locks, control panels that had to be placed safely out of reach because someone had seen a raptor slip its arm through the bars and claw at the button that raised the gate. She had taken all that with more than a pinch of salt but had done it anyway because Mr Masrani didn't want to take any chances. But now that she was looking after the Rex... Suddenly Claire wasn't so sure anymore. Making a new species was a fantastic way of raising the park's profile, of making it relevant. Looking after one on the other hand...making sure it stayed in the paddock...

She would be fifty feet long, Henry had said during one of their conversations. It had been a casual remark. In her mind's eye, Claire saw a great pale forearm tipped with gigantic claws reaching for buttons. 'We need to make the walls higher,' she suddenly thought.

"Claire?"

"What are you trying to say?"

Owen looked long and hard at her. "I know you've been caring for her. But you need to know that she's no dinosaur."

She shouldn't have felt offended or upset. Like the bite the Rex had given her, his statement was impersonal. "She's not a monster."

"I didn't say that—"

"Not in those words—"

"But you can't just make a new species—"

"That's kind of what we do here actually," she retorted, fighting to remain calm.

"Most newborns aren't even aware of themselves but she was and more than that, she latched onto you with a speed that I've never seen before, not even in Blue."

"Blue?"

"She's my beta raptor and trust me, Blue's the smartest dinosaur in this park." He glanced at the Indominus Rex. "The more self-aware an animal is, the greater the intelligence. That one remembers the exact schedule you've laid out for her. Blue could only remember some of mine when she was the same age and that was already impressive."

"And your point is?"

Owen put her hand down and back in her lap. It didn't make him look any less forbidding. "My point is that you don't know what she is capable of and you've put so many genes into the mix that she does not even know what she is."

There was a possibility that he could be right. It made Claire sick to think about the conclusion that lay right at the end of Owen's line of reasoning. But she had cost twenty-six million dollars and there was no way they would kill her. Mr Masrani would never allow it.

"Sarah," Claire blurted out. "Her name is Sarah." Saying her name somehow made her seem more real, more concrete. She was here to stay.

He leaned back, looked perplexed but mostly sympathetic and Claire thought she wouldn't be able to bear it.

"Why 'Sarah'?" he finally asked.

"It means 'princess' and—"

Before she could continue, there was a loud distressed warble from the dinosaur. Then Sarah barked twice sharply. Claire was getting to her feet and Owen was already on his when the princess arched her neck sharply, opened up her mouth and vomited a pile of greenish goo all over the cushion.

... ... ...

They never got to eat lunch after all. Henry had moved Sarah back to the lab and into a special corner all by herself with round the clock monitoring. She looked fine though, Claire thought as the baby butted its nose against the glass plane which she had pressed a neatly bandaged hand to. Her eyes were bright and alert, and any calls she made weren't ones of distress even though she was back in a special hatch with equipment that monitored her heart rate and other kinds of readings.

They both saw him at the same time, Sarah from over her shoulder and Claire in the reflection of the glass plane.

"How is she?" Owen ignored Sarah's growl of displeasure.

"She's fine. Henry doesn't think she's sick although they're going to put her here for the next forty-eight hours.

"Are you okay?"

It was the same question he had asked her the other day. The same warmth too, she noted. And when he looked at Sarah it was with some concern as well. It was an absurd overreaction to think he would harm the baby.

"I'm fine. I'd really like some coffee though—"

In the hatch, Sarah suddenly started to retch and once again, she vomited.

"Oh my God, Sarah—Doctors! Where's Henry?"

In the end, Claire refused to leave, Owen was made to leave and then a wall of doctors obscured the hatch.

An hour later, Claire felt exhausted as she sat in a chair watching the dinosaur digging about in a newly produced blouse that was put in to placate her. Her head ached and the lights in the lab felt too bright. She needed food; she hadn't eaten since seven that morning and it was now two in the afternoon. 'She'll sleep soon. Once she's asleep, you can go,' Claire consoled herself.

She realised she had closed her eyes when someone brushed her shoulder gently. She wasn't surprised to see that it was Owen. "You need to get some food. You look ready to drop."

"This is why I never wanted children," Claire grumbled and then wished she could have taken it back because she saw that he wanted to chuckle but was holding it in. "Why are you here anyway?"

"To test out a theory."

He tapped the glass plane. Sarah quickly extricated herself from the folds of the blouse and before Claire could do anything, Owen draped an arm over her shoulder. He was so close that if she turned her cheek, her face would brush that worn leather vest he always wore around the park.

"I bet a second date that she's going to vomit in the next five seconds."

"What?" Claire was flabbergasted. "There is no second date and she's not going to throw up again."

"Five..."

"Why would she do that?"

"Four. You're a smart woman Claire. You tell me."

Her eyes went wide.

"Three."

"No. She's not doing this to—"

"Keep us apart? Two."

"That's ridiculous."

"One."

And right on cue, Sarah threw up. Claire's mouth dropped open. Owen just laughed. "Six o'clock at my bungalow today. Don't be late."

Too stunned to say no, she watched as he walked away. So apparently, there was going to be a second date.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone. Alright, I managed to get another chapter out and it basically wrote itself. So, no details on why Sarah is called Sarah but I'll work it in for the next one. I'm not sure when I can update again but I'll try to make it on a fortnightly basis. I'll try. You guys are fantastic reviewers who are pouring gallons of fuel into my Clawen fires. Seriously, I can't say how much I appreciate all your wonderful support._

 _No real common threads for questions but I'll just answer some queries. Someone asked about human DNA because of Owen's remark in the movie. There's another story here with that so I'm gonna leave the human DNA alone and work with something else. Raptor play dates coming up very soon, possibly the next chapter actually._

 **IMPRINT**

 **V.**

"Why would you want a second date?" Claire chewed on her lower lip as she stared at her wardrobe. Again. What was usually an effortless, though definitely not thoughtless, process had taken on Herculean proportions. She gazed into the closet and her clothes gazed right back at her.

"Too dressy." She slid a lilac shirt with monogrammed buttons away. "Too shiny." A sequinned pencil skirt the colour of midnight that usually made men stare was the next reject on the rail. Owen's bungalow was right next to a lake. A lake usually meant mosquitoes. Claire sighed. A sensible outfit, for someone like Owen and for some place like his would be jeans and a blouse. Unfortunately, such items did not exist in her wardrobe. She was sure she had a pair of linen capri slacks somewhere at home. But not here in Isla Nublar. This was not home.

She did want to be herself though. With Karen, she could be some of that. Her elder sister had grown from an absent, albeit much admired, figure into a friend in the past few years. Even the presence of two squalling babies who evolved into toddlers hadn't been able to keep her away. 'Entirely away,' Claire corrected, catching sight of herself in the mirror as she stood tall, pale and bare except for the matching nude-coloured lacy undergarments she had on. Both she and Karen had inherited their father's red hair. Claire had taken his angular chiselled good looks. He had always been so cold, and some of that lingered on her in spite of her best efforts. Karen on the other hand, had their mother's boldness.

"You're brave," Karen had said. "Look at everything you've done so far."

But while Karen's boldness let her embrace life and endure scars, Claire wielded hers like a sword and shield. And so few were the things that she let touch her.

She shivered in the cool air-conditioning and her fingers landed on something which sparked her interest. It was a flare skirt, one of the few she had which were more than an inch above her knee. The print was rich and complex with roses in soft reds and oranges on a bed of cream. Not exactly casual, but different. "Different can be good," she muttered and smiled when she recalled that she had spoken those exact same words to Sarah. And now all she needed was... Claire retrieved a sleeveless white blouse that she remembered Zara had brought over. "There." She was probably still overdressed, but it seemed better than the black dress she had worn to that first date.

Flats would have been great. But Claire didn't have any. So she compromised by looking for the two inch red heels tipped with sharp golden points that looked like teeth and slipped those on. A bit like Dorothy, she thought as she smoothed down the front and grabbed her purse. Except that she didn't need a yellow brick road to find her way since she had first class GPS. And Owen Grady was no wizard, and Claire was too old to believe in magic.

Her stomach did flutter several times as she drove to his place though. Okay, maybe flutter was a bit of an understatement. But it definitely did something when she stepped out of her car and the door to his bungalow opened and yes, there were no board shorts in sight but dark denim that hugged his legs in a way that made her stare for a second too long. She liked his white tee shirt as well.

Then her phone went off, an insistent chime that reminded her she had a call to make. "Sorry," she mouthed as she scrolled through her contacts for Henry. He picked up on the fourth ring. "How is the asset?" she asked crisply, picking her way over the slightly uneven ground towards the picnic bench while she wrestled her car keys into her purse with one hand. "Okay, that's good. If she wakes...Yes, alright then."

"The asset?" Owen mocked lightly as he opened a bottle of coke for her. It was ice cold and welcomed since the evening had turned slightly balmy. It might get chillier later; the local forecast had predicted rain but Claire was not going to share that little tidbit with someone who poured scorn on itineraries. The latter were extremely important. But perhaps not on first dates, she relented as she sipped the coke.

"If I had called her Sarah in front of them, Henry might have felt compelled to take my temperature." He wouldn't have understood. What exactly he wouldn't understand eluded Claire because she left it on the periphery of her subconscious but she knew enough and more importantly, she knew the geneticist well enough.

Claire was half expecting Owen to make some jibe about them having a dirty little secret but he didn't. Maybe he understood. Of course he would, since he had four dinosaurs of his own to care for. "To Sarah." He touched the necks of their bottles together before raising his. "May she stop getting sick at the sight of me."

"I certainly hope so. Henry was not happy at all. He gave her a very mild sedative so that they could get some fluids and vitamins back into her. "

"Did you tell him about my theory?"

Something had told her to keep quiet. So she had because she knew her instincts were good. Claire shook her head.

"Good. Give me a minute." Owen sprang up and jogged back into the house and Claire told herself that it was okay to let herself look just once at what was, to her knowledge, the best butt on the island. Then she took another long cold drink of coke. When he came out, he had two plates of food in his hands and a bottle of tequila tucked under his arm. A plastic cup wobbled dangerously over its neck but he managed to put everything down without dropping a thing. "I hope you don't mind," he said. "Or are you done with that diet?"

She ran her eyes over the words on the label and they made no sense because she knew nothing about that kind of liquor. "It's kind of a lifetime diet. Most alcohol gives me a headache and then my nose runs. Which is inconvenient when I'm trying to get a couple of million from an investor."

He was slightly surprised, she could tell but the smell of the food was more enticing and Claire felt her mouth actually water. After Sarah had fallen asleep she had managed a sandwich while reviewing a report that she sent off just before her prep for this second date. "I didn't know you could cook," she said as they both tucked into their food. He had the biggest T-bone steak she had ever seen and he had grilled some cod with cilantro-lime sauce for her and it was so good that Claire didn't realise she was smiling until she saw Owen grinning at her.

"What?" she asked self-consciously.

"I don't think I've ever seen a woman look so satisfied before. At least out of my b—"

Claire cleared her throat loudly and fixed him with an even stare which she knew lacked its usual bite. "Mr Grady..."

"Aw, honey. The kids aren't around," he protested.

"Oh, aren't you one for moving fast," she shot back.

"Not always," he replied. "You need to take some time with certain things. They're worth it." His green eyes were as bright as the rays of the setting sun that rippled over the lake. It took her breath away. "Like your Sarah."

"She's not mine." She speared a piece of fish and thought about that fish-loving pale little spitfire of a dinosaur that showed more brains at two weeks old than Gray, who was a certified genius. Sarah would have liked it out here. Dinosaurs were meant to roam the earth after all. "She belongs to Jurassic World."

"Try telling that to her. She's all instinct and some heart and if you make yourself important enough to her, that might keep her from being more dangerous next time."

"Owen." Her impatience was something she couldn't quite hide.

"Tell me they didn't plan to make her bigger than the T-Rex."

"How did you—"

"Bigger, faster. More teeth. I know the spiel." He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin and crumpled it. "My girls are three times the size they ought to be and they're missing their feathers."

"According to our focus groups—" She stopped herself. She didn't need to look at him to see that he was looking elsewhere. Like her, he couldn't hide his impatience entirely either. "Look, I don't get to tell Henry what he can or cannot make. That's up to Mr Masrani and InGen."

"But they need you to tell them if a viable structure can be created to contain an animal with the characteristics they're going to grow it with."

He had her there and she knew it. She had the best engineers in the world working for her but it was her stamp of approval that was the next cog in that particular wheel. "What did you want me to say?" She would lose her job because there was always someone else willing to say yes and she had honestly not seen anything wrong with a new attraction. Attendance would spike, celebrities would visit. "Eyes of the world, Claire," Mr Masrani had said the first time she entered Jurassic World and seen a living dinosaur in the flesh. It had felt like a new world then, until the wonderment had worn off.

"Tell them 'no'. Someone has to do it before they play God so much they forget they're not him."

She pushed the remnants of her filet around and politeness made her take another mouthful. You always finished food at the table, always. It was one of the ways in which her father reached her from the grave. She chewed, she swallowed, she marshalled her defences.

"Is that what you told them when you agreed to take this job training mutated raptors?"

He had seen that coming a mile away but it was a legitimate question. "Do you know what it is InGen does with them? My research is meant to see how intelligent these animals can be. It's kind of like what I used to do with dolphins and sea lions in the Navy, except that the girls are a hundred percent wilder and a hell of a lot smarter than even the best mammal I trained."

"But you can control them—"

"I don't control the raptors. It's a relationship, it's based on mutual respect." Owen looked like he wanted to say more but instead, he polished off the rest of his food and she felt compelled to do the same. The silence seemed so loud, made louder still by the evening buzz that told her there were six legged insects, most with wings, that were very nearby. Claire thought of the safety of her car and resisted the urge reach for the paraben free insect repellent in her purse. So far though, she miraculously hadn't had a single mosquito bite. And then what Owen was saying, or rather not saying, sunk in.

"Wait, why does InGen want to know how intelligent the raptors are? And why hire you when they have scientists..." She trailed off and almost dropped her fork.

Scientists could run IQ tests on the animals and that was that. Owen could run the same tests. Unlike a scientist however, Owen could put the animals through another set of paces. The kind that a military man who worked with animals would know. And Mr Masrani only hired the very best to work at Jurassic World. She didn't need to ask to know that any questions about Owen's past would be met with the response "that's classified". She did not like where this was going at all, not one bit. A theme park was fine. This though... It shed a whole different light on the phrase "dogs of war".

"I've been telling them 'no', Claire," he said quietly, reading her poker face perfectly well. "I knew the endgame when they hired me out of the Navy but someone needs to tell them that these are wild animals that cannot be controlled."

She had to ask. "Is InGen going to put Sarah into your programme?" A thought occurred to her. "Is that why you were in the lab the day she hatched?" Her voice was higher than it should have been but now was not the time to care about that.

"No." His response came fast and it was as firm as the ground beneath her feet. "Blue and Delta had a fight and I needed to pick up medicine for Delta. I don't think Dr Wu realised what he cooked up in his lab. If he did, they probably would have made me take her."

As much as she resented Sarah being referred to like that, Claire knew he was right. The Indominus Rex had been invented as much as the light bulb had been. "So, how smart is Sarah?"

He pushed his plate aside and leaned forward on his elbows. Those beautiful hands that made her weak in the knees were inches from her own clasped ones. "Whip-smart. Blue smart," he said and she knew what he meant. "She's problem-solving at two weeks, Claire. I have no idea what she'll be capable of as she gets older."

"Will InGen find out about her?"

She knew it was a stupid question the moment it left her lips. Sarah was the costliest dinosaur on the island and they would be keeping an eye on her day and night. 'Damn it Claire. You need to think through the anxiety,' she thought angrily.

"That's where you come in." Owen took her hands, unfolded them so that the blood could start circulating again. "You'll get to say 'no' this time. And she'll be too big and dangerous to risk without having you on board."

"Okay, okay." She nodded. "So what do you suggest I do with her? I mean... I don't even have a plant."

"Right now just keep her close to you. Give her affection and firmness."

"She listened today because I was bigger." She should really retrieve her hands from his but she didn't. It felt good and she liked it. It was comforting too.

"Yes, and also because you were firm with her and you persisted. She needs rules, boundaries. She'll remember those even when she is bigger than you."

"You said that respect is mutual. How do you show that to a dinosaur?"

She knew he didn't mean to frighten her. But he did anyway. "You don't ever forget that the same dinosaur you raised would kill you in a heartbeat if things go the wrong way. It starts with that."

This was not a pet, not a dog or cat. Maybe it was a little like that Lion Whisperer she had been reading about in her spare time when Sarah wasn't demanding it. "I can do that," she said as she remembered to keep breathing. She would say it until she believed it. Then another thought occurred to her. "Did you ask me to come here just so that you could discuss Sarah?"

"Sarah is the second reason. I already told you the first." His thumb brushed over the length of her palm and the touch went through her bones. Maybe she was wrong; maybe Owen Grady did have some magic after all. "You need to take some time with certain things. They're worth it. That's why you and I are having this second date."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Oh man, how did this happen? I'm just glad it did anyway since I have no idea when I can make the next update (work's starting all too soon). Oh, and watching a wonderful fanvid by Wolfca on Tumblr (Shut Up and Dance) helped kick the writing juices into gear. Thank you everyone for commenting on the second date between Clawen (apparently that's the most common name for this ship. I'm kinda fond of Deargrady though) and the slow build-up, and being, in a nutshell, wonderful. And since a lot of you missed Sarah, here she is again._

 _I think what came out of the reviews was the idea of raptor playdates. Soon and in good time cos' I have to put a couple of things in place. I'd also like to reiterate that I will definitely borrow events from the movie but put this story's slant on that. Also, just a teeny reminder that the second Indominus Rex hatchling died in the first chapter of this story. So no second I-Rex villain. I think Hoskins is awful enough..._

 **IMPRINT**

 **VI.**

There were special paddocks for baby dinosaurs to stay in. Or rather, there was a big paddock that was sectioned according to species. Once they were old enough, which usually meant about four weeks or so, they would be put there where they would get a mix of the outside environment (which meant grass, dirt, sunshine and some rain if they wanted. In short, all the things that Claire tried to avoid), minus the huge crowds of course, while having access to indoor comfort (automated lighting and temperature adjustments, fresh food and clean water). Herbivores were placed together to encourage familiarity and because of their innate need to stick together in groups. Carnivores had the run of their own little space all to themselves (the only exceptions had been the raptors) until they began getting too aggressive or too big. Usually, it was the former that always happened first, then the latter. When that happened, they would be upgraded to the huge paddock that had been built in advance for them and most went on to live happy solitary lives until felled by old age or illness. The latter had happened, not the former. Rexy was getting a bit long in the tooth although she was still going strong.

According to Henry's initial plan, she was supposed to babysit the Indominus Rex until it was three weeks of age and then it would be transferred to the special paddock so that she could have her life back and go on being the Operations Manager of the most successful theme park in the world. Once Sarah went to the paddock, it would mean that she would be alone for the majority of the day. So Claire did what she did best—plan for that eventuality. In the mornings, she would drop Sarah off at the paddock, spend lunch with her—Claire supposed that she could sit in the pen and work with her smartphone while Sarah did whatever it was she wanted there—and then she would come to see her in the evenings and spend at least two hours with her. Owen had thought otherwise; he had spent almost every moment with his raptors and had been the only handler to look after them. But Claire had pointed out that that had been his job and that Mr Masrani had hired her for other things.

"Neither is he going to let me take home a twenty-six million dollar dinosaur just because I think she's cute," Claire had reminded him drily during one of their many phone conversations. It had been a week since that date and Claire had gotten a couple of mosquito bites after all. But she suspected that her feet had yet to touch the ground. The evening had ended with them sitting at the small lakeside dock. For the first time on Isla Nubar, she talked about Karen to someone else and Owen told her about his mother who was living in Los Angeles with her third husband. "He seems like a nice guy," Owen had said sincerely but Claire could tell he didn't quite feel anything for the man whom his mother had been married to for the past three years. He'd been a lot more enthusiastic talking about some of the animals he had trained over the ten years he had spent in the navy.

She was probably going to have to call Owen again. Preferably after this Skype conference with Mr Masrani. Sharp teeth latched onto her ear and Claire winced. "Sarah!" she hissed. Sarah merely warbled before she rubbed her rough snout against Claire's neck. Clearly, she wasn't sorry.

"Oh, you named her. You didn't tell me that. It's a beautiful name. Princess, yes?"

"Yes," Claire smiled tightly but not because of anything he said. It was just somewhat uncomfortable speaking to your boss who happened to be the eight richest man in the world and wielded an unimaginable degree of influence and power while a three-week-old dinosaur was doing her best to burrow her way under your shirt and squawking because you wouldn't let her in. There was a tug and the sound of tearing cotton. Claire prayed that her bra strap was not showing. That did it; she was going to eat all that organic salmon and not give any to the brat.

"I hope you do not mind, Claire," her boss (had she mentioned he was one of the most powerful men in the world?) said apologetically, mistaking her discomfort for displeasure. "I assure you that the arrangement is only temporary and that your job with Masrani Global Corporation is completely secure."

He didn't say the park; he'd just said the company. Claire wondered whether the sight of the dinosaur that had transferred its attention to her hair, which it was trying to eat, distracted him or whether it was a calculated promise. They were bringing in someone new, an Alex Harrington whose last job had been for a Fortune 500 company and whom Claire knew by reputation. He was very good, and had probably applied for the post as well. Even if it was temporary, six months of excellent performance at a company like Masrani's was enough to open the right doors. And Simon Masrani liked acquiring very capable people. Claire also thought about the viability of having anything to do with Owen if she wasn't needed at the island anymore. Her relationships at home barely survived even when she was in the same damned country as the person. Then she brought her head back to where it was needed in the current moment.

"What if the heart murmur doesn't fade by six months?" Claire had to ask.

Doubt shadowed Simon Masrani's face and he looked troubled. "I've asked Henry to consider that possibility and come up with a contingency plan. We will do everything in our power to keep her healthy."

That was the best she could hope for, along with Sarah not developing the same heart defect that her sibling had. That was the reason why the unborn hatchling had perished and since they had shared the same genetic make-up, it was a small miracle that Sarah had managed to escape her sister's fate. And Henry had never shared it with her because that was none of her business. The only reason why they were telling her now was because Sarah's stint in the lab last week had uncovered a faint heart murmur and now they were afraid that placing the dinosaur in the baby paddock would make it stressed and worsen the condition. Mr Masrani had seen the footage of the dinosaur imprinting on her and decided that she would have to look after the animal until it got older and stronger.

"She doesn't behave like the other predators," he commented. It was the second time he had said that. Seeing her with Sarah in her arms had only strengthened his resolve to sacrifice having her as the Operations Manager. "She has a bond with you."

"Mr Grady said the same thing."

"He'll be a good source of advice and I've asked him to give you any assistance that you're going to need. No one else has handled predators on this island the way you are going to have to."

The rest of the details had been worked out and were now being run by her. Yes, she was agreeable to and saw the sense in continuing to stay at the huge spare office (the one Mr Masrani never used but which had been built for him anyway) which they had converted into a temporary apartment for her, especially since the lab was just two levels down. Claire was definitely allowed to go outside, but only if it didn't stress the animal too much. There would be a security team of four who would follow her if and when she had the dinosaur with her. She was also only allowed to bring Sarah out if there was a good reason to. Any and all good reasons would be logged and subject to discussion if Henry Wu felt there was a problem. The Indominus Rex would be moved to its own paddock sooner if it grew faster than anticipated but even then, Claire would devote her time to it until its heart was declared fine or until the six months were up.

"No shopping for you at the Hilton." Claire chucked Sarah under her chin and finally allowed the baby to snuggle inside her blouse once the meeting was over. "No shopping for me either," she groaned, wondering how long it would take for Sarah to slice off those apron strings she had so firmly wrapped around Claire's waist.

After six months, if all went well, Sarah would have a paddock all to herself. After six months of cuddling and training and bonding, Claire had a sinking feeling that it would go as well as both her nephews' first days at school. Karen had had to sit in the cafeteria for Zack the entire day where he would come to find her using the pretext of toilet breaks. That had lasted for three days and her sister had had to live through a repeat of that episode when it was Gray's turn. Gray had gone one further and tried to fake an illness. Karen had declared his use of pink paint to simulate chicken pox quite ingenious. Claire wondered how Sarah would respond to the sudden quiet and lack of company. Her paddock was four miles from the nearest attraction. At least in the baby paddock, there would be the sounds of other dinosaurs. There would be handlers and caretakers walking around. Inside the paddock, the only living things Sarah would have with her would be trees and plants. "Maybe by then you wouldn't care." She stroked the dinosaur through the thin material of her shirt. In response, Sarah dug her nose deeper into the crook of Claire's neck. Then she sneezed on her.

Claire pulled the protesting baby out from her blouse but it was too late. The tip of her snout was damp but it was nothing compared to the wet that Claire felt dripping down her skin. "Sarah. Seriously..."

The baby opened its mouth and barked at her. Claire could have sworn that it was the dinosaur equivalent of laughing.

...

"This is not a good idea."

Claire would have huffed in exasperation, except that Claire Dearing did not huff. "Owen, you promised. And you said animals raised in isolation are not the most functional."

"Sarah has you. That's not isolation."

"Your velociraptors have Barry as well as you."

"Barry is here because there might be another clutch of velociraptors for a second study. Plus, my girls do not hate him."

"Sarah doesn't hate you."

Owen scoffed audibly over the phone.

"Well, she won't once we bribe her with enough salmon and veal." Claire paced the apartment, all too aware of the small dinosaur that was currently testing out her teeth on a table leg. "Sarah, no!" She snapped her fingers to emphasise the command and with a low growl, the dinosaur obeyed, albeit reluctantly. Claire knelt to give her head a quick rub. "Look, I'm delaying her dinner and if Sarah is anything, she's a glutton. You said it yourself, she has to know that I'm in charge. If I say you are okay, then she has to accept that. And Mr Masrani did say you were to assist me," she added. It was a dirty card to play, using the boss and as she had sadly anticipated, it had entirely no effect on Owen.

"Isn't this going to stress her?"

"Henry has been running weekly tests and so far, Sarah seems fine. It's been three weeks. She's just over a month old and if she so much as burps in your direction, you can be out that door as fast as you want to be." Claire paused. "Please Owen. It's been three weeks, six in total, and I've not been able to set foot out of this place except for dinner with you and that was just the once. I thought I could do it and I can," she added quickly. "I just need to see someone other than myself and the tech from the lab who brings Sarah's food."

"Claire Dearing, you talk a mile a minute when you're desperate."

"I am not desperate," she replied automatically. In the silence that followed she could practically see Owen's raised eyebrow. "Okay, I am sort of in need of help."

"I—"

"Think of yourself as the back-up plan. What if I get really sick and I have to go back home? What if my phone falls into the bathtub and I get electrocuted and die? Sarah needs someone to manage her."

"Claire, no one dies from having their phone drop into the same tub as them."

"I charge my phone in the bathroom sometimes. It could happen."

"There's as much chance of that happening as you making a video call to me while you're in that tub."

"Done. You get in here and I'll do that."

"Claire, it is not nice to lie and get a man's hopes up. Amongst other things."

"Owen Grady!"

He sighed. "At your service. Open the door."

The jerk. He had been standing outside the entire time. Claire got the container of Sarah's food before yanking open the door and practically dragging Owen inside. "It is not a good time to tease me now."

"So when would be a good time?" It had to be a special ability, making innocuous statements sound dirty and Owen had it in spades.

Claire narrowed her eyes and fixed him with a scowl she knew had made full-grown men figuratively piss in their tailored pants. "You are flirting with the wrong female, Mr Grady. The one you want to win over is creeping our way."

"Relax momma, or your girl here will take a bite out of me instead of this."

He was right and Claire knew it. She was just very nervy from sleeping only three hours the night before. The night before that, she managed four hours. There were all sorts of paperwork to settle, all kinds of matters that needed their loose ends tied up in order for the handover to transition smoothly. It would have been over much faster if Claire could have been there in person to deal with everything. But she was stuck in this apartment with a ball and chain called an Indominus Rex. And Sarah had not wanted to sleep; she had wanted Claire to play with her, to pet her. The older she got, the more energy she had. The more Claire refused to, the louder Sarah became.

"You've been using the clicker on her, right?" Owen's attention was completely on the little dinosaur that was stalking him with frightening intensity. Well, still small but not so little. Sarah was now the size of a small dog. Her head was lowered, her mouth opened to show all those teeth, her claws outspread.

Claire nodded. "She knows it means food if she listens."

"Get her to listen then." He peeled open the container of food and held it for her as she positioned herself slightly in front of him.

"Sarah, stay." Claire had the clicker behind her back because the sight of it distracted Sarah. The dinosaur ignored her. "Stay." She held up her hand, using the visual signal to reinforce her command.

For a moment, Claire thought Sarah wasn't going to listen. Then she paused and in that split second, Claire tossed her a scrap and she hissed, pouncing over the meat as she snapped it up in her jaws. When she was done, she cocked her head and looked from Claire to Owen and back again.

Then she hissed at Owen and came forward. "Stay," Claire instructed once more. The Indominus Rex stopped but continued to hiss in frustration at the man she couldn't get to. When she stopped, Claire used the clicker and rewarded her again.

Thirty long minutes and one nearly empty container later, Sarah was able to look at Owen without making a peep. She looked sort of disgruntled, if a dinosaur could look disgruntled, but otherwise she was silent. "Good girl," Claire praised. "That's my good girl."

"We're going to have to do this everyday you know," Owen reminded her.

Claire touched her fingers together. They felt oily and she wished she had thought to put a pack of tissues in her pocket. Tomorrow. "That's not a problem right? I mean, you can spare some time..." She turned to him questioningly.

"Oh yeah. This is worth making time for." His eyes were on Sarah, who had settled down on her haunches and was still watching them.

She noticed for the first time that his shirt was blue. She noticed again just how tall he was, how broad. "You like that colour a lot," she said, indicating to it.

"It's my favourite. It was a happy coincidence when my beta was born blue as well."

"That's how you knew she was the one?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, that's how I knew. So why'd you call her Sarah?

"Promise me you won't laugh."

"Cross my heart."

"I really liked Linda Hamilton in the second Terminator movie."

"Because she was a badass?" he asked softly.

Because when she had seen it, Claire had told her frightened and miserable fourteen-year-old self that if Karen was away and mom was gone, she could still be all right. "Yeah. She was a badass." It felt strange, using a word she normally wouldn't have. But it felt right.

Owen didn't say anything. But the ensuing silence was comfortable even though Claire had the feeling that he had understood more than she had intended. Then, he nudged her hand. "Look at her. What do you see?"

Sarah was moving her tail slowly from side to side. A moment ago it had been still. "She's getting restless."

"That's my cue to go. She's done her part and now I have to do mine."

"Mutual respect," Claire quipped as she opened the door for him to slip out.

"Exactly. Looks like Sarah's not the only smart one around."

"I'm retracting that promise of a video call in the bathtub."

Owen faked a look of agony and Claire laughed. "See you tomorrow," she said.

"Good night, Claire."

She shut the door, then leaned against it and sighed. Even though he was gone, it felt like something of Owen still lingered in the room. Sarah barked at her. "What? He's a nice guy. You just need to give him a chance."

The Indominus Rex told her exactly what it thought of that notion by pooping on the floor a minute later.

"Oh my God...Sarah!"


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, firstly a big thank you to all of you left lovely reviews; I appreciate all the comments and it's great to hear what interested you and what made you laugh. As for what you guys want, what you really really want aka encounters of the raptor kind, I promise it's in the next chapter. Swear. This chapter is building up to that, regardless of how the end looks like. Thank you for all your patience with the updates and the plot._

 **IMPRINT**

 **VII.**

At two months and just under twenty pounds, it was fair to say that Sarah was thriving. The little spikes and spines on her back were completely hardened by now and quite a few additional ones were popping up. Claire counted them because now, during physical examinations, Sarah would not let the doctors handle her anymore. It was Claire that had to get her to open her mouth to let them check her teeth, it was Claire who put her on the scales and took her height. What Claire drew the line at was taking blood. "If I put a needle in that animal, she's never going to trust me again," she said firmly when Henry tried to persuade her. In the end, the geneticist settled for subjecting Sarah to a dinosaur friendly MRI. The murmur was still there, but as faint as ever and it didn't seem to be slowing her down at all.

The apartment was a testament to that. There were many parts of the walls that were marked by scratches and deep gouges—once Claire had found a little tooth lodged firmly in the pearl sheened wallpaper—that stopped at around two feet in height. Sarah wasn't quite that tall yet; on her haunches she stood about roughly two inches below Claire's knee but boy could she jump, Claire thought as she observed the little Indominus Rex pouncing at her own shadow one bright evening when the sun's rays slanted in. Sarah warbled and chittered and that was how Claire knew that she was playing. Besides, any animal smart enough to look into a mirror for the first time and recognise herself was not going to mistake her shadow, or even Claire's, for another being.

All drapes in the apartment were now half-length. Claire had stepped into the bathroom only to rush out halfway covered in a towel and soapsuds because Sarah had given an ungodly screech that stopped her heart. And then she had laughed herself into a coughing fit at the sight of an Indominus Rex shaped bulge that warbled pitifully while trying to crawl out from under the right side of the curtains which she had somehow managed to drag down.

The tables and chairs and sofa were not spared either. When Sarah had attempted to eat the goose down stuffing of a cushion and almost choked, Claire had all of them removed from the premises because trying to stop Sarah from gobbling feathers was as promising as trying to part the Red Sea without Charlton Heston and CGI. "What kind of dinosaur eats feathers?" Claire had reprimanded sternly as Sarah regarded her with big blinking golden eyes, five feathers poking out from various angles in her tightly clenched mouth that she refused to open. When Claire tried prising her jaws apart, the Indominus Rex had growled and the spines on her back had actually stiffened in response, like a porcupine's. In the end, Claire had to trick her using some salmon and even then the rascal had tried to hide her stash of feathers behind the sofa as Claire pretended to busy herself with making coffee in the kitchen. When she was done gorging herself, Sarah had gone back to retrieve her treasures, only to find them gone and Claire did not think that Sarah showing her back to her for the rest of the evening was a coincidence either. In fact, that was the only day when the dinosaur had actually allowed Owen to touch her, even if it was for two seconds, while shooting Claire a look that could only be described as smug.

"I've raised a brat," Claire grumbled once Sarah had darted away to play with a squeaky bone that had been certified by the lab as being safe. "I always knew I would fail at this parent thing."

Owen laughed and she remembered thinking that by now, she could pick out that sound, would know his voice, even in the Innovation Centre of the busiest day of the year. "She's a dinosaur Claire, not a child or domesticated pet. Nature does as it will and we do what we can using nurture. I see she hasn't ruined your bed."

"No. I was surprised actually."

"Don't be. You're the mother, the leader of this pack. The fact that she hasn't touched something she knows to be exclusively yours is a good sign."

"And she hasn't tried to assault you in the last five days either. She tolerates you now."

"Is that your way of telling me I'm exclusively yours?"

She had reddened instantly and sputtered. "Don't flatter yourself!"

Owen had merely preened until Claire had thrown another of Sarah's squeaky toys at him. He hadn't returned the favour, since Sarah suddenly stopped playing and regarded them with a wary eye. Or more accurately, she was watching to see if Owen was going to do anything to Claire. "Wait till I get you alone, Dearing," Owen muttered.

"Dream on, Grady. Dream on."

Still, no matter how many toys she got her or how much socialisation Owen was there to help give, it was becoming clear that the four walls of the apartment were not going to be enough for Sarah. She was exploring, learning. Her energy was increasing and Claire knew that eventually, that unexpended energy could turn into aggression. Wild creatures needed space, needed activities to keep them preoccupied.

And that was why Claire was up at the ungodly hour of four in the morning, dressed in a fashion that she had never envisioned actually touching her person, but love made people do stupid things, which explained why Claire was dressed in cropped linen slacks, wearing a silk blouse with its sleeves rolled up, and a pair of hand-stitched pony hair shoes with rubber insoles, holding a reinforced leather leash which extended to a body harness that was currently fastened around one very, very excited white dinosaur.

There might have been tourists at the Magaritaville, which was opened all day and night, but the Innovation Centre itself was closed and it was quiet and gave her the privacy she needed to walk Sarah. She was sure that the security personnel allocated night duty were all cursing her under their breath but Claire didn't care. She felt excited just to be out and escape from the confines of the apartment. "Come on," she said unnecessarily because Sarah had already wedged herself into the space between the door and wall as Claire opened it.

Watching Sarah, it was like seeing everything for the first time. The movement of the lift was as smooth as any in a six star hotel but Sarah clung to Claire's leg until it came to a complete halt. Her little head kept turning left and right, swivelling up and down as they existed the long corridor and made it pass two password encoded glass doors. Scooping up the dinosaur in both arms, Claire held her tight as she approached the spiral staircase. "Look at that," she murmured, feeling the rapid, sharp breaths that Sarah took as she surveyed the Innovation Centre from that height. She had never seen such space and it showed in the alert way she raised her head, the snuffling sounds she made as Claire carried her down.

They walked every square inch of the Centre. Sarah tried to bite the holographic image of Mr DNA but Claire had her tucked safely under an arm then. She regarded the lumbering Apatosaurus and Triceratops with something akin to fear, shrinking back against Claire with her teeth showing in a silent snarl. "Don't be scared. You're going to be much bigger than them." Claire stroked and soothed her repeatedly. "And you'll have plenty of food. You don't need to hunt, not like that."

When her phone buzzed, both of them jumped. "Lowery?" Claire answered, a puzzled frown drawing her brows together as she put Sarah on the floor. "Is everything okay?"

"You should see yourself onscreen." Lowery sounded as lively as he did during the day and Claire had a feeling that he had a huge cup of coke beside him. "I feel like I should call you Khaleesi or something."

"Kah—what? What are you talking about? Why are you even awake?"

"You know, Khaleesi. The wife of a khal who basically is the leader of a horde known as a khalasar. They destroy stuff, raze their enemies to the ground and raise horses for a living."

"And I'm associated with destruction and razing and horses because?" Sarah tugged impatiently on her leash and Claire followed. She knew she should have had that extra cup of coffee.

"Not because of that, although sometimes you do engage in metaphorical razing of various obstacles, sometimes humans, to the ground."

"Lowery."

"Right. The point is the most famous Khaleesi of all, Daenerys, Mother of Dragons. Although you're more like the Mother of Dinosaurs but hey, who's gonna split hairs? Ancient creatures thought to be extinct and born of magic—which is science in a different word—and she has one white dragon and you have a white dinosaur. You didn't call it Viserion by chance did you?"

"Is this from some movie you watched?"

"Television series actually. And there are five books."

"Ah, I see. Her name is Sarah."

"I like that. Viserion rocks though."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Again, why are you awake?"

"I'm the park tech genius extraordinaire. When you told Dr Wu you'd be out walking the most expensive dinosaur on this island in the dead of the night, I got the job of making sure you were safe and recording everything via surveillance."

A wave of irritation at Henry arose but Claire tamped it down. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for him to change your schedule. Did he run this pass Alex?"

"Alex told him once these nocturnal visits were established as safe, I'm back on the day shift."

Diplomatic but firm. That was a pretty good move. Lowery was too valuable to be wasted monitoring her and Sarah in comparison to an average of twenty thousand people a day, any one of which could sue if something went wrong. She already had four burly men, all of whom were ex-army guys or ex-Special Forces to protect the two of them. "Nothing more than a week, I'm guessing."

"You guess right. Have you met him? Vivian swears he's completely your type," Lowery rolled on casually and Claire knew he'd had too much coke. "Cheekbones and an accent that could cut glass packaged in bespoke suits. He even smells high end."

She knew the type. She had dated them before. To be fair though, she didn't know Alex personally and didn't care to. "He sounds perfect for Zara."

"That's what Vivian says. I'm rooting for you though."

If he wasn't her subordinate and colleague, Lowery might have been a very interesting friend. "Thanks but no. I'm not interested."

"Oh." He sounded deflated before perking up the next second. "Is it because of Grady—"

"Bye, Lowery." She cut the call and stared at the phone for a minute before stuffing it back into her pocket. She almost put a hand to her face to feel if she really was blushing but knew Lowery would be watching and read that gesture correctly.

Sarah warbled and scratched at the heavy gilded doors and Claire knew that it was time to move to their next destination. It was time to introduce Sarah to Paddock 11.

... ... ...

The ride there had been disappointing; she hadn't been allowed to wind down the window, not even by an inch to let Sarah stick her head out and enjoy the wind. But that was forgotten as Claire punched in the security code and let the scanner take her handprint as she entered the lower level of the viewing enclosure. Once inside, she proceeded to the end where there was another door and repeated the procedure. "Lowery, could I have some light please?"

"Sure thing Khaleesi."

"Stop that."

"As you command, Mother of Dragons."

Like magic, the lights inside the paddock came on. They were harsh, and made her blink rapidly as she turned her body to shield Sarah. "You need to cut down on the soft drinks."

"You're probably right," he said. The last thing Claire heard before he put down was a noisy and long slurp that could only be made by someone inhaling a drink through a straw.

There were two men outside the door to the ground level of the enclosure and another two in the viewing gallery above. But they didn't matter. Bending down, Claire smelled the strong scent of the earth as dried leaves crunched beneath her feet in the cool green grass. Sarah looked at her uncertainly and she put a reassuring hand on the dinosaur's head, chittering softly to her. How large those towering trees must seem. They had been planted to give her shelter during the day and there would come a time when she would be so tall that she might be able to touch the topmost branches. But here with the lights throwing harsh shadows on them, they loomed tall and forbidding as towers.

"It's just trees and grass," she said firmly as she straightened up. A fly buzzed in her face and Claire resisted the urge to flinch and duck. Instead, she swatted her hand in the general vicinity of the winged menace and prayed it would go away. "Come on, Sarah. Let's go."

The Indominus Rex didn't move. She swayed slightly on her feet, her arms curled and tense, posture and spine stiff. Claire reached into her pocket for the clicker. "Come," she said again and the sharp sound seemed to snap Sarah back into the moment. When she took several cautious steps forward, Claire bent down to pet that rough little head copiously until she gained in speed and stride.

Claire hated the outdoors and she remembered precisely why she hated them as she walked Sarah around the huge paddock. Scratching at a swelling spot on her forearm where a mosquito had bitten her, she suppressed a shriek when another bug flew past and crashed into her cheek before she violently brushed it aside. "Next time, you pack repellent." Maybe she could get the gardeners to grow lemon grass or citronella in the paddock, or whatever it was that repelled insects. On second thought though, it was a bad idea. Sarah hated anything with a strong smell and Claire had had to give up Coco Chanel for the dinosaur. At least she had outgrown her grass allergies. Ironically, the thought made her want to scratch, if only out of habit.

She was wondering if Henry had relayed her instructions when Sarah barked and suddenly went wild. Claire let the leash slip from her hand and watched as the Indominus Rex bolted for a patch of undergrowth, a wisp of pale light like a ghost in the shadows. Seconds later, there was an ear-piercing shriek of triumph as Sarah emerged with a good-sized chunk of meat in her mouth. Hunching over it, she proceeded to tear and shred the food, using her dextrous arms to manage it while she ate. At that moment, Claire's phone went off and as she reached for it, Sarah froze, golden eyes hard with sudden aggression. Pretending not to notice although the sight was disturbing, Claire moved away, walking back along the open path. The picture flashing on the phone was of four speckled eggs. "Mr Grady."

"Say that again and I'm taking this Starbucks coffee back."

"Owen, Owen. A thousand times Owen and why aren't you in here already?"

"I don't have clearance and the Brothers Grimm here won't let me in. They think I'm going to steal the dinosaur."

"Tell them to let you in or I'm going to seriously consider living up to Lowery's suggestion of razing things."

"You're on speaker phone."

Claire dropped her forehead into her hand. "I'm going to kill him. Maybe Sarah can help me," she mumbled venomously. Marching towards the entrance, she punched in her code and slammed her hand on the screen. The door slid back smoothly to reveal a grinning Owen Grady. He looked a bit tired, and his rich brown hair with that rather adorable curl to it turned golden under the lights. Clad in his usual attire of blue shirt and leather vest with dark brown corduroy pants, he was a welcome sight for sore eyes. Especially with those Starbucks cups in his hands. Who cared about posh accents and expensive suits?

"Double shot Tall latte with no sugar for you. I come in peace."

"I'll think about sparing you."

"Thank you ma'am for not razing me to the ground."

"Shut up and give me that coffee."

In the end, they sat down on the grass near the door. Sarah popped out to stare at Owen when she caught his scent but went to hunting for hidden caches of meat that Claire had asked paddock personnel to stash around the area.

"I can't bear the thought of giving her a live animal to hunt and I don't want her to get hurt. This is okay right? For now."

Owen took a sip of his coffee. It was plain black and extremely strong from the smell that wafted over to her. They were so close that her arm would occasionally brush his as she lifted her cup to sip from it. Neither of them moved apart and Claire tried to ignore her heart that was beating a little faster than usual. "For now. But she's excited and stimulated. You've got her thinking and she eats what she finds. The hunt is for food and that's what a mother teaches her children in the wild."

"Thanks for coming by." She looked up at him, squinting slightly against the light.

"You're more than welcome. I wanted to see Sarah's paddock for myself." He paused and gave her a long meaningful look. "And I wanted to see you too. Even if I had to haul my ass out of bed at this hour."

She swallowed, tasting the smooth milky bitterness of the latte on her tongue as they stared at each other. Then, before she could change her mind, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, letting her lips linger against the rough stubble before she drew back. He smelled like soap and mornings before the world was awake. Owen's green eyes were so wide she could make out the blue tints in them. Hunger flashed over his face, the same hunger that was burning low in her belly. She wanted to put her mouth on his, wanted his hands on her.

He moved, leaning down over her and Claire's breath hitched audibly. It was too fast but she didn't want to stop him either.

It was the angry bark and the sound of running that stopped them in the end. Sarah came bursting out of the bushes and literally screeched to a halt and continued making agitated sounds until Claire and Owen moved apart. Shaking her head, the dinosaur huffed loudly before stalking forward to inspect Owen. "I know what you want you little beggar." Reaching into one of the multiple pockets of his vest, he took out a piece of dried jerky and tossed it to the Indominus Rex who caught it easily. "You're going to get fat."

"She is not," Claire shot back automatically. Her heart was hammering against her ribs and she had trouble looking at Owen while he, irritatingly enough, seemed completely at ease. It was hard to imagine anything ruffling Owen Grady's feathers. "I guess we're done here then."

"I guess so. It's almost time to feed the girls anyway." Above him, the sky was brightening, turning into a sea of indigo blue that was retreating to make way for the paler shades that came flowing in to lap away at its edges. "I'll see you later then, after dinner."

He hesitated, just for a beat and Claire knew that she wasn't the only one affected by that near miss of a kiss. "Why don't you come for dinner? That is, if you can make it," she amended quickly. "I mean, if you don't have anything else on..." She knew Owen was pretty popular around the island from that first date. He'd practically waved at every staff member who'd walked through the door, most of whom Claire knew strictly by their names and resumes.

"I don't. Six o'clock then?"

"That's fine," she said and tried not to smile like an idiot as she opened the door for them.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, the weekend came and the Muse assaulted me so here is the next chapter. It is really long, longer than I thought it would be and I hope you find this enjoyable as well. To everyone who reviewed, thank you so much guys! For the concern about work, for letting me know how much you liked Sarah's gooseberry tactics, and also the UST between Claire and Owen, and for making this entire endeavour so very, very wonderful for me. And as promised, raptor/I-Rex playdate number one is here. _

**IMPRINT**

 **VIII.**

"Found you," Claire said loudly as she stood over the half-opened drawer of the side-table next to her bed. "Sarah, come out."

A protesting warble emerged from the semi-darkness of the drawer.

"Oh yes you are in there. And besides, the fact that I never leave the drawers open kind of gives the game away." Claire tapped the edge of the drawer before slipping her hand inside. "Found you, Sarah," she repeated, prodding the firm side of the baby dinosaur who swatted her hand away gently. When Claire drew back her hand, she could make out the very faint pink marks of Sarah's claws. "Too bad we can't send you for a manicure," she frowned before sliding out the drawer fully. "How did you even get in there?"

A closer examination of the brass handle revealed scratches. "Clever girl," she mumbled and wondered just when Sarah had started observing how to open drawers and doors. The thumping of Sarah's tail amidst the once neatly stacked writing pads and miscellaneous stationery drew Claire back to the present. "Come on, Owen's coming for dinner and I thought you might like to peruse the menu with me."

Sarah huffed excitedly upon hearing the word 'dinner' and Claire chuckled as she carried the dinosaur to the sofa and deposited both of them onto it. Immediately Sarah pounced on the thick gilt-edged menu and shook it, using her arms to pin it in place as she attempted to chew off a corner. "I'll take that, thank you very much." Claire put a hand on the menu and tugged. Sarah tugged back. "Sarah, let go." The Indominus Rex's response was to climb on top of the menu in an attempt to claim it with her body. "Oh come on. I'm bigger than you. For now. Sarah, let go," Claire repeated, injecting more firmness into her voice as she stared down the dinosaur. With a disgruntled last shake, Sarah listened. Looking around, Claire found a squeaky bone stuffed into the corner of the sofa—yet more evidence of Sarah's latest penchant for hiding things, amongst them herself—and passed it over to the Indominus Rex.

While the white dinosaur played and rolled and tossed her toy such that Claire had to periodically pick it up from the floor, Claire kept a steady eye on the menu, running over the food items. Dinner was about an hour away and since six o'clock was always rush hour in the kitchen, she was going to pre-order to make sure their food arrived on time. She would have done it earlier, but Sarah had made it impossible by insisting on playing hide-and-seek. The soup of the day, she had been informed, was bouillabaisse and if Owen was going to eat soup, it had to be with bread. He liked pasta, especially lasagne and wouldn't object to having fish. In fact, Claire had yet to come across any food that Owen didn't like. He ate a lot but burned through it effortlessly, courtesy of his late night visits to the island's only gym at the Hilton. She supposed being the alpha of a pack of highly intelligent and vicious hunters probably required him to have that kind of stamina and physicality; it must help with feeling confident as well. Although there wasn't a single person on the planet who could outfight a large and angry dinosaur. "Isn't that right?" She tickled Sarah's tummy and the Indominus Rex growled playfully. "It does make Owen really easy on the eyes though." Sarah paused for a moment—she clearly recognised Owen's name—before returning to chewing her toy vigorously.

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up. It was the shrieking in the background that made her jump. Sarah clearly heard it too because she hissed in response before trying to clamber up Claire's chest to get at the intruder in the phone. "No, Sarah. Stop—Owen?"

"Claire—" Another thunderous scream stopped him and she heard Owen swearing. "Give me a second. I said no firing! Get those goddamned guns out of here or the raptors will not calm down!"

Claire's grip on her phone tightened. "What's happening?" Sarah leaped, sharp teeth just missing Claire's wrist as she ducked, and the dinosaur ended up on her back against the armrest of the sofa. Before she could get up, Claire did. "It's okay, stop." She held out a hand to Sarah who hissed and prowled the edge of the seats before hopping down to hover around Claire's ankles. "Owen, are you there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here. Sorry about that. Look, I can't come over for dinner. Blue and Echo just fought and it's real bad. There's blood and Echo won't come out of the trees or into the stalls for us to check her. I need to be here."

Before Sarah, she would have asked him to let security tranquilise the other three raptors before going in to tackle the fourth. If they didn't want to, Asset Containment could do it. The loss of trust wouldn't have been an issue because it wouldn't have existed in her understanding of the dinosaurs then. "You're not going to go in there, are you?"

"I'm worried Claire, really worried. I'm not stupid," Owen said wryly. "All the girls are on edge, especially Blue. I actually think she's keeping Echo in place and this might be pack dynamics at work but..." He made a frustrated sound and Claire realised that he knew as well as she did that there was nothing he could do.

"Has this happened before? I could call the lab, get a doctor to come down just in case Echo," she paused, not because it felt strange calling another dinosaur by its given name but because it felt surprisingly natural now, "comes out of hiding."

"Only with Delta two months ago and that was nothing compared to this. Thanks for the offer but we still have some meds here and besides, the girls stopped letting the doctors handle them once they touched four months."

Claire looked down at Sarah, who had elected to sit on her foot while staring at the handphone. Sarah had started that with the doctors one week shy of two months. Claire had been to the raptor paddock before and to be honest, they had scared her although she'd hidden it very well. So did that mean that Sarah was going to be worse than the raptors? Henry still wouldn't say what had gone into the making of the Indominus Rex and Claire had given up asking. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Don't be mad with me for skipping out on dinner with you?"

"Oh Owen, please. If something happened to Sarah I'd dump you for her in a heartbeat as well."

"That's cold Miss Dearing, real cold." He didn't laugh, but his voice softened and the joke seemed to take the rough edges from it.

"Is it okay if I call you later? I won't be disturbing what I presume is going to be an overnight vigil at the paddock until Echo comes out?"

"You presume rightly. And a call would be more than okay."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later. Good luck with the girls."

"Later, Claire." There was another loud shriek which was abruptly cut off when he ended the call.

She put the phone into her pocket, simply because she didn't like the way Sarah was still eyeing it, as though there was a tiny raptor hiding inside. "My foot's getting numb," she announced, wriggling her toes in an unsuccessful attempt to get Sarah to remove her rump. "Oh stop burning a hole in my pocket with that glare. You know, you might have some raptor in you. Owen certainly thinks so..." She trailed off, staring at the baby dinosaur who stared right back at her while trying to shift more of herself onto Claire's foot.

Sometimes, distractions could be good for breaking up fights. It could work. Claire had seen dog fights broken up because something had shocked or surprised the animals. Water, food, a shrill whistle. Once she'd seen an attacking dog let go of its victim because its master started yelling "Bye" and running away. These were dinosaurs, not dogs...but nature was nature and some things were universal, or so she hoped. "And you do need to see a real dinosaur, don't you? You should know what you are, at least on some level."

Henry might have a fit if she mentioned this and Claire did not feel she wanted to waste time debating the merits or demerits of the situation. If the raptors reacted badly, there would be metal bars between them that had been built strongly enough to contain a rampaging elephant.

Before that though, there was a call she needed to make. She had the number of every single handler, manager and outlet on the island in her phone. Scrolling through it, she found what she wanted. "Hi, this is the Sunrio Tequila Bar and Mexican Restaurant, am I right? I'd like to place a takeaway order..."

... ... ...

The paddocks for the visitors were closed officially by seven in the evenings. The raptor paddock closed half an hour before that. In the end, she bought dinner for eight, including Owen and herself. The security guys declined her offer; their shift ended at six and all they needed was to inform the next team to meet them at the raptor paddock.

When they pulled up to the paddock at fifteen minutes past six, she saw Owen and Barry up on the metal walkway. By the time she got out, Owen was already walking over. "Claire, what—." He stopped short when he saw Sarah in her arms. "You brought her?"

"I thought your girls might need a distraction. Who knows, Blue might forget about the fight with Echo and let her come check out the newcomer." Claire tried not to sound as nervous as she suddenly felt. She was no animal behaviourist. "I also brought dinner," she added. "For everyone. I know people might have to work overtime tonight."

"Miss Dearing." She turned to see one of her guards carrying two big bags with the name of the restaurant emblazoned proudly in yellow on both sides. She started to put Sarah down so that she could take the food from him but Owen beat her to it.

Claire thanked the guard but she was distracted by Owen's grin. "What?"

"Don't get me wrong, I love Mexican food. I just didn't expect you to ever frequent this place again."

"Why not? Nothing but good memories there," she said, keeping her expression perfectly deadpan.

It felt good to make him laugh, to sooth some of the tension from those broad shoulders. "You and Sarah wait here for me. I'll put this in the office first. If your idea works, no one will be eating yet and just maybe, no overtime will be needed either."

So it wasn't a crappy plan after all. Claire let out a breath. Sarah barked unhappily as Owen walked away, then let out an excited warble when he tossed her a piece of jerky. "I just fed you," Claire pointed out to the uninterested dinosaur that had eaten close to two kilograms worth of meat. "Do me a favour and poop in the grass while we're here."

Sarah went one better. She pooped just as they were approaching the double gates that led to the entrance of the paddock. "Oh God," Claire muttered. Everyone just had to be watching at that moment too.

"We'll clean that up later. Look." Owen nodded at Sarah who had suddenly gone on high alert. Rising up on her legs, she placed her arms against the gate, nose pressed hard against a square of space. Claire could hear the force of her inhalations.

It was then that she realised the paddock had gone completely silent. When she looked up, three of the Velociraptors were standing at the inner gate. Their heads were forward, postures completely erect and behind them, they held their thick tails that could probably smash a person's ribcage high in the air, waving them from side to side. Three pairs of bright yellow eyes were fixed on her dinosaur.

"It's okay. Just relax." Owen put a hand on the gate but made no attempt to open it. "Nothing's coming through that first gate."

"Elephant." Claire tore her eyes from the raptors. "It can stop a rampaging bull elephant. We tested it." She felt better, just saying that aloud. "Not with an actual elephant of course."

"And I'll be right there beside you."

"Of course you'll be. Where's Barry?"

"Up on the walkway. Someone needs to tell the guys what to do in case something happens. Are you ready?"

She took a deep breath, looped Sarah's leash twice around her wrist and once around her hand. She clutched it so tightly that she could feel her short nails digging into the flesh of her palm. "Yes."

Sarah, contrary to Claire's expectations, did not charge in. For all her obvious interest, the Indominus Rex knew that she was in the presence of larger animals that might not be entirely friendly. Keeping close to Claire's leg, the baby dinosaur stopped about three feet from the inner gate. Then she chittered softly, warbling as she looked from one raptor to the other.

It was Blue who spoke for the group. When she barked, Claire wanted to jump out of her skin; all she could see were those rows of sharp teeth glinting in the evening light. For Sarah's sake though, she held it together. It was Owen who reached out to take her hand, who moved slightly in front of her. The raptors stopped staring at Sarah and Claire found herself the target of their gaze instead.

Claire couldn't remember who was who—was it Charlie? Delta? But the light green one without the stripes snarled at her and slashed the air with its jaws. "Delta, knock it off." Owen's rebuke was immediate and stern but controlled. Delta shook her head, rumbling fiercely and Claire was pretty sure that they could smell her fear. But she simply kept still and focused on the warmth of Owen's skin against hers.

Then Sarah growled, rose up to the fullness of her small height and gave an open-mouthed hiss as she moved closer to Claire, so close that her tail smacked repeatedly against Claire's calves as Sarah climbed on top of her shoes. Claire remembered Owen's words.

 _"She's defending you."_

Suddenly it was hard to swallow and Claire blinked rapidly against the sudden heat at the back of her eyes. Sarah was tiny, laughably so when measured against a full-grown raptor. But her baby had a lion's heart, so to speak. Apparently love made dinosaurs do stupid things too.

Blue shrieked what seemed to be bloody murder to Claire and Sarah shrank back against Claire's legs but she answered with her own defiant call. "Blue, calm down." Owen held up his hand and the beta stuck her face forward as far as it would go through the bars. Owen never flinched. "Stand down."

The growl which rattled the bars of the gate went down to a much softer one although Claire still thought it was way too loud. It seemed good enough for Owen though. He lowered his hand, relaxed his stance. "That's good. Easy now."

Sarah looked up at Claire who smiled tightly at her. "It's okay," she whispered.

Blue drew back, and then barked down at Sarah. The Indominus Rex warbled and Blue growled before vocalising again. Sarah kept quiet this time and she lowered her entire posture. 'She's showing submission,' Claire realised.

It was only because she was so tense that the entire implication of that thought hit her seconds later. Sarah understood the raptors. They were speaking to each other, not just with their voices but with body language as well. 'Owen's right. She has raptor in her.' She just had a lot more than Claire thought possible.

Sarah finally crept off her feet and Claire watched, fascinated yet scared as the raptors brought their snouts down to the lower bars where Sarah was. She remained just out of reach, but was sniffing the air and making small tiny noises. Her tail remained low.

There was movement on the walkway above. Barry was signalling to Owen and Claire saw why when a Velociraptor emerged from the trees. There was more bronze to her skin than green. In the dying light she seemed almost golden. She moved slowly, hesitantly and shied to a stop when Blue, followed by the rest, turned to face her. The right side of her snout was marred by a large wicked looking gash that ran down to her mouth, which she held slightly opened.

"Blue," Owen called again. The beta chomped her jaws once, huffed loudly and then turned her back on Echo. After some waiting, the lone raptor moved forward and although there was some growling, the others left her alone. Sarah moved over to Echo at the end of the line, chirping softly as the raptors replied in a series of low rumbles and deep warbles.

Barry was striding hurriedly down the walkway above, his movements smooth but swift as he gestured to someone she couldn't see. She heard the buzz of a control button; the side of the paddock closest to them had doors that were opening. These led to the interaction stalls, where there were head halters made of titanium so that the handlers could touch the raptors without getting their arms taken off. Claire had scoffed openly when the proposal design had landed on her desk. "Raptor petting zoo" was what she had called it, and not privately either. But InGen had insisted and she had complied.

"Back away now, slowly. Pick Sarah up and stand near one of those halters. If a raptor comes through, it will be Blue."

Her legs worked just fine, which was a little surprising given how scared she actually was inside. "Sarah, come."

The raptors protested noisily as she pulled the Indominus Rex away but quietened down when they saw her reposition herself next to the last titanium halter. "Come on girls." Owen tapped the halter in front of hers encouragingly. "If you want to see the baby up close and personal, you have to come through here."

Blue, Claire thought, had eyes that could probably slice right through flesh and bone if she tried hard enough. Prior to taking the job with Masrani, Claire had read obsessively about the first park and she knew all about the raptors and even Rexy. There was a reason why she only visited Paddock Nine when necessary; it was one thing to look at a dinosaur that ate only animals and quite another to look at one that you knew had actually eaten people. The reports on the raptors she had taken with more than a pinch of salt; they were animals after all. But after caring for Sarah, after coming down here and looking into the eyes of the animals that Owen worked with everyday and spoke so affectionately about, Claire was beginning to understand a little of what Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm had felt. No wonder they had protested against the opening of Jurassic World so vigorously. Grant had even come out of his self-imposed media exile to give a series of blistering interviews vilifying Masrani Global for its decision to start the theme park. Andrew at the Corporate Communications department had had his hands full trying to contain them.

For a moment, it looked as though the raptors weren't going to listen. Then Blue disappeared from view and Claire steeled herself. She refused to look to her right, simply because she did not want the image of amber eyes coming out of darkness looking at her. She held Sarah, focused on the slow rhythm of her hand against the baby's hide as she used the Indominus Rex to sooth herself. Then Blue was there and Claire knew because she could feel her hot breath on the skin of her forearm. With a few minutes, all the other raptors followed suit.

There was a second buzz, somewhere behind the walls. The interactions stalls were also designed with a secondary set of doors that could lock the raptors in the stalls if necessary. That must have been the second buzz. Remembering those facts helped calm her down a little.

"Claire?" Owen was running a hand over a raptor's neck. Charlie. Charlie with the stripes like a tiger, except that hers were green.

She stopped glancing down at a blue-grey snout with its deep, flaring nostrils as the raptor took in the scent of the Indominus Rex. "I'm okay. I just don't want her to scream if I move. Go check on Echo."

The gate behind her opened and in came Barry carrying a large white box. "Miss Dearing." He didn't attempt to shake her hand and she saw the quick glance that he gave Sarah.

"Claire," she corrected. "And this is Sarah."

"Oh I know. Owen's told me all about her."

"If he said anything bad happened, just know that it's all his fault."

"I heard that," Owen called out.

Barry chuckled and excused himself. As slowly as she could, because she didn't want to seem too obvious even though she suspected her efforts at being subtle were utterly wasted, Claire inched away from Blue and moved on to Charlie, then Delta, letting each of them get a good whiff and close look at Sarah, who thankfully contented herself with making excited warbles and intense sniffing. Claire was half expecting Sarah to lick their snouts but she didn't. Finally she came to Echo, but she stood further off, not wanting to crowd Barry and Owen.

"Her jaw's slightly dislocated. There's nothing we can do about that but let it heal naturally. Easy girl," Owen soothed as they worked to clean the wound. Soon there was a small heap of bloodied gauze at their feet. Echo growled and the stall shook with the force of her struggles as they put antiseptic onto the huge gash. Sarah barked and the raptor flicked an eye towards them, momentarily ceasing her struggles.

Sensing the raptor's curiosity, Claire moved closer. "Would you like to touch her?" Barry asked lightly.

"No offense but no thanks. I'm not her handler and these aren't pets."

"None taken," Barry shrugged lightly and although he said nothing more, Claire had the oddest feeling that it had been a test of some kind. "So how are you holding up with that one?" He indicated to Sarah.

"She's two armfuls. But we're doing alright." Until the time when I might need something like this to touch her, Claire wanted to add but she left that part out. And even then, when Sarah grew bigger, there would be no holding stall big enough to allow that. She would have to watch her through a special glass alloy designed to stop hand grenades. "Although if you're not disinclined towards very early morning walks in her paddock, I'll let you take her."

"I think she might have something to say about that. And since I like my fingers, all ten of them—"

The sound of vehicles pulling up to the paddock stopped him short. "Who else is coming?" he asked Owen.

"I'll go have a look." Owen wiped his hands on a cloth before stuffing it back into his pocket. He got to the gate and turned around to shoot Barry a dark look. "It's Hoskins," he said and Claire didn't like that Owen sounded worried, particularly when it was Sarah he looked at next.

"Owen! Barry!"

The sound of his loud greeting made the raptors stir. Sarah's head came up and Claire found herself holding the Indominus Rex just that much tighter. She didn't care for Victor "call me Vic" Hoskins. He might have helped grow InGen's security division into the world-class organisation that it was today but seeing the way he had looked at her the first time they met had been enough for Claire to sum him up. He had spent more time looking at her boobs and legs and in spite of one very frostily polite request, he wouldn't address her properly.

"Well, well." Hoskins sauntered up to the outer gate and rested his arms on the bars. "Who do we have here? I didn't know you had an interest in dinosaurs, honey. I almost didn't recognise you without the skirt and you know... hair and make-up." He leered at Sarah who rumbled softly and showed him her teeth. "Looks like we got ourselves another spitfire, boys."

There had been better things to do than think about dressing up or flat ironing her follicles into submission. Claire was contemplating how much damage Sarah could do if she hurled her into Hoskins' face while knowing that it was a futile, if momentarily, satisfying thought when Owen moved in front of him, blocking the Head of InGen's security division from her sight.

"Why are you here, Vic?"

"I heard there was a tussle with the raptors so I came out. Is he okay?" Hoskins craned his head around Owen to shout at Barry.

"She is fine," Barry replied pointedly and went back to murmuring to Echo in French while he applied the medicine.

"See, she's fine. You should go. The raptors are kinda worked up and we need to get them to calm down before letting them back in the paddock."

"They look pretty calm to me." Hoskins shifted to the side and looked hard at Sarah. "I just want a closer look at that one. That's it right? The Indominus Rex."

She didn't need to see Owen's face to know that he was going to say no. His shoulders were squared; he had his feet planted very firmly in front of the gate; his hand was still locked on said gate. His body language practically shouted it. However, there was a very strong possibility, the more she thought about it, that Hoskins was Owen's boss. InGen had hired Owen to help do research on the possibility of using the raptors as weapons. Hoskins was in charge of InGen's security arm. It was easy enough to put two and two together. It was also quite easy to see that the working relationship between the men couldn't be that great, especially if Owen kept saying no to using the raptors in war.

There was a nice unopened bottle of citrus and pineapple bodywash at home that she had yet to try. She could go home later and scrub off the nearness of Vic Hoskins. It was a small sacrifice to let the man see Sarah from behind the barrier of the bars if it meant making things a bit easier for Owen.

"Yes, this is our latest asset. The Indominus Rex." It was easy enough to put on her professional face, even if she wasn't dressed for the office. "She's currently two months old. Henry says she's doing very well." Claire stopped beside Owen. "Mr Grady has been helping me with managing the asset's behaviour and social development."

"I'm sure he has," Hoskins quipped with a wink.

Claire just stared at him without blinking and tilted her head a little. Then she frowned faintly and very deliberately, looked over his shoulder with a barely audible and very dismissive "Hm." It was a technique she had picked up from one of her Harvard professors and perfected. It never failed to make the other person stupid. Judging from the speed with which his smirk disappeared, she guessed that it had worked according to plan.

"Can I...?" He raised his hand, his intention crystal clear. Before either she or Owen could say something, he was reaching between the bars and zooming in on Sarah.

The Indominus Rex reared up in her arms and let out an ear-splitting scream before she lunged forward. Claire stumbled back in her haste to save Hoskins' hand and almost fell but Owen was there to catch her, turning her around so that Sarah couldn't see Hoskins anymore. But it was the god-awful cacophony of wailing shrieks and hair-raising snarls that stopped everyone in their tracks for a moment. The halters shook so loudly and violently that it sounded like thunder to Claire. The raptors were furious.

"Go on! You have to go Vic!" Owen shouted. "Get out of here!"

Sarah had half-climbed onto her shoulder and Claire winced as sharp claws went through the cotton of her blouse like hot knives through butter. She could hear the dinosaur gnashing its teeth and snapping its jaws. It was frighteningly close to her ear. "Sarah, stop!" she yelled but the Rex continued shrieking alongside the raptors until Hoskins disappeared.

Before he went though, she caught a glimpse of his face as he turned around for one last look at the paddock. He had looked pleased, very much so and that made Claire colder than the storm of snarls he left them in.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed the raptor playdate! I had to be careful not to laugh in public, especially when I read the comments about Hoskins, who I gathered firstly, must die, and secondly, is the only male there to be despised by both females of two species on the island. Some of you commented on how I am structuring this story and balancing the romance with it, and that made me so happy because that's what I really aim to do. Also, I loved that some of you pointed out that I am sticking to the movie's idea about these being wild animals. We can love them, work with them, but there's a line there that exists and we need to know how to dance along that._ _Someone asked about timelines with respect to the movie. I'm working it in via details here and there in the story; there's one right here in this chapter. That said, I am on my own schedule even though I may borrow events from the movie, and I will use those to fit this plot. Will Zach and Gray feature? Honestly, I don't know. There's a reference here to a reboot that might be in Chris Pratt's future, and an adorable picture on Tumblr featuring items that fall into the raptor pen by elektronx._

 **IMPRINT**

 **IX.**

The office, which was a rather large room which he shared with Barry, was surprisingly tidy. There was a small pantry in the corner, replete with a long couch and coffee table with stacks of magazines on them. The same could be said for his desk. It wasn't like hers, which was utterly and completely neat with everything hidden from view, save for her laptop. On his were dog-eared books about dinosaurs and animal behaviour crammed around the edges and held in place by black-coated metal book racks that were beginning to peel at the bottom corners. To her amusement, he had a whiteboard on the wall next to his table which barely had any space left since he had covered almost every square inch of it with his barely legible handwriting. He had no laptop, opting to use the office issued desktop instead. Unsurprisingly, he and Barry had arranged their tables such that they faced each other. There were faded photographs of Owen and his mother. Those that had a man in them, she reckoned were of his father because it was always the same person and he looked a lot like Owen. The curl in his hair had come from his mother though. He kept all his pens and markers in a plain white coffee mug. No, wait a minute. It wasn't plain. Claire reached out and turned the mug around. "Seriously, Mr Grady?"

"What?" He swung the low door of the medical cabinet shut, a red and white kit in his hand. Sarah, who had been preoccupied with a rather deflated soccer ball, looked up with a chirp before going back to adding her tooth marks to its sorry hide.

"The ASSet?" She held up the offending mug and he handed her the most breathtaking grin in the universe.

"You can't say I'm not listening to the company jargon."

"Sure." Claire rolled her eyes. At least she could move that part of her body without it hurting. Her ankle throbbed a little, she had sprained it slightly when she had stumbled but that would fade as long as she didn't overexert herself. It was the claw marks that Sarah had left which hurt. The right side of her blouse, especially near the neckline and shoulder, had visible tears and there was no way she was going to get those spots of blood out of that rose pink fabric. "I need body armour," she sighed wistfully as she touched the ragged edges and hanging threads. "Chainmail or something. Boiled leather."

Reaching under his desk, Owen drew out a metal stool in a shade of orange that could only be called ugly and sat down next to her. "How do you even know about that stuff?"

"My nephew. The older one. He was really into knights and the Round Table and then Dungeons and Dragons. I had birthdays and Christmases to attend and an older sister who kept me well-informed."

"The nephew who is 'high school age'?"

Claire gave him the dirtiest look she could muster. It had come up during one of their conversations and to her chagrin, she had completely forgotten what Zach and Gray's ages were. She'd known, back when they were younger, when Karen and Jared seemed happier, when she'd still been able to make some time... "Zach is fifteen this year and Gray's ten."

"You go, Aunt Claire."

"You have a very objectionable bedside manner, Mr Grady." Claire bit her lip and winced but the words were out and she couldn't take them back, just like she couldn't stop the way Owen's entire person seemed to light up with mischief.

"If it's my bedside manner you want to find out more about Miss Dearing—"

"This is not the time and place for this," she cut in, pointing firmly at the bottle of peroxide and gauze in his hands.

"You're totally right. Let's go over to my bungalow after that."

"You, me and Sarah," she said sweetly.

"Otherwise known as the Indominus third wheel."

Sarah screeched triumphantly as she ripped a hole in the soccer ball and then pounced on it, flattening it with almost unholy glee.

"Says the ASSet," Claire returned smugly. "Besides, you still have to feed your girls. Make it snappy Grady. As I recall, we're here at your insistence."

Owen raised his eyebrows slightly. "Demanding aren't we? Okay then, take that off."

Claire blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Your top. It'll get in the way and whatever germs and dirt Sarah had on her claws when she scratched you would be on it as well. There's hardly any point in disinfecting your wounds if you're just going to keep wearing it."

"No."

"Let's be practical about this."

"And you wanting to see what's underneath my blouse has absolutely nothing to do with this?"

"Oh, it definitely does but that's just second on my list of priorities."

Claire stared at Owen. Then she laughed. "Do you have a spare shirt somewhere?"

Owen looked stunned. "Uh...yes. Yes I do." He looked around, visibly gathered his thoughts and looked back at her again. "In my bag."

Claire looked over to the faded blue duffle bag he had dumped in the corner of the wall behind his desk. She started to get up but a gentle hand on her shoulder, the one that Sarah hadn't hurt, stopped her.

"I'll get it," he said and for some reason, it made her blush slightly.

"It's just a bit sprained, not broken," she muttered. Owen gave her a look and ignored her.

The shirt was at least three sizes too big for her because it was an exact replica of the one Owen was wearing. She took it from him and dropped it into her lap. "Okay, let's do this." Then she reached into the medical kit for the scissors and handed it to him. "You can cut the neckline and sleeve open. I'll put the shirt on afterwards, alone."

To say Owen was utterly nonplussed would have been the understatement of the year. "Earth to Owen Grady," she said, dangling the scissors in front of him. After two seconds, he took it from her with a scowl.

"That hurt, Claire," he complained, looking for all the world like a little boy who'd been given a present only to have it taken away from him. "Why are all the girls in my life beautiful and full of teeth?"

"I am not one of your animals," she replied dryly, reaching up to pull her hair to the side so that he wouldn't cut it by accident. Owen lifted the edge of her blouse and had put the scissors to it when he abruptly stopped.

Both of them suddenly noticed Sarah, who standing up on her hind legs. She had both her arms on Owen's leg and Claire could see the press of her claws against the fabric. In the silence, they could make out the faint growl in her throat. "Easy girl," he soothed, as though the claws that had just ripped up a soccer ball weren't pressed against the thin barrier his pants which offered protection that was non-existent. "Easy."

Claire casually reached out and rubbed Sarah's throat before moving to the top of her head, massaging the small bumps and thickening ridges. "It's okay. It's okay," she repeated. Long minutes passed, and then the Indominus Rex relaxed. Owen let her sniff the scissors, careful to keep the sharp points away from her. After nibbling at it, Sarah decided the strange metal apparatus wasn't sufficiently interesting and walked back to the toy she had been destroying. Claire let out a shaky breath.

"Sneaky little thing."

"That's why I never turn my back to the raptor cage. Everyone who works there knows that."

"I'm sorry—"

He stopped her. "Don't be. What she did back there was a warning. But it also means that she was giving me the benefit of the doubt, and some time to stop. There's some trust there, however little."

"Do you think seeing you with the raptors made a difference?"

Very carefully, Owen started snipping at her clothing. "It might have. Raptors are pack animals but so far, no one's actually seen them interacting with their young and vice versa. Still, Blue listened when I told her to cool it and Sarah couldn't have missed that."

"I read about two expeditions to Isla Sorna to observe Velociraptors. Most of the teams never made it back."

"Two people from the second team did. I spoke to them," Owen said grimly. "They didn't see a single egg or infant and the only reason why they were allowed so close to the nesting grounds was because the raptors were hunting them, letting them move in before the pack cut them off. That's why when I accepted InGen's offer, I told them I had to imprint on those raptors from the start or this would never work." Setting the scissors aside, he peeled the ends of the blouse back, baring her shoulder. The rough tips of his fingers grazed her skin and Claire hoped he didn't notice the goosebumps.

"You think the raptors consider Sarah one of their own?" Her wounds burned as he doused them gently with disinfectant but she kept her voice even and her expression neutral. She wasn't trying to impress Owen; it was simply a mechanism she had drilled into herself.

"If they didn't, they wouldn't have tried to tear down the wall to get at Hoskins."

It had taken almost fifteen minutes to calm the raptors and Claire, after shooing away Owen who hovered over her like a second shadow when he saw the blood on her top, had to bring Sarah round to each individual raptor before they were satisfied.

He was daubing ointment onto her cuts and with that deep tan, surrounded by raptors and dressed in worn leather and corduroy, she sometimes forgot that this was a man who had signed up with the Navy at twenty and graduated with honours on a scholarship at one of the most competitive colleges in the field of animal biology and ethology. All he needed was a hat and a whip, Claire thought and he could pass for a young Indiana Jones.

"Claire, you're going to burn a hole in my forehead if you don't quit staring."

Damn, caught in the act. "I'm not staring. I'm thinking. Today must be interesting for you, from a behaviourist's perspective."

"It's pretty damn interesting actually, especially since Sarah's a hybrid." He motioned for her to turn around and this time, he caught her hair for her, sweeping it to the side and Claire found she liked it far too much when he did it. Because he couldn't see her, she let herself wince slightly as he disinfected what felt like a longish scratch down the lower part of her shoulder. "The raptors think she's a Velociraptor, Sarah behaves like one but she'll be bigger than the T-Rex in...?"

He paused, waiting for her to fill in that gap. She didn't want to say it; she could already see the disapproval written all over Owen. "Three years. Henry said she would be ready for the public by then." She waited for something, anything, but Owen said nothing and that felt marginally worse somehow. But he kept tending to her wounds, all the same. She turned around when she felt him finish applying the adhesive tape to her back.

"How much is Sarah eating now?" He was still gentle as he put the tape over her cuts, but the earlier softness in his movements was gone. His words were slightly clipped. He wouldn't look at her.

"In the last two weeks, she's been getting hungrier. She's eating almost as much as her body weight. She's not gotten taller but she's been getting longer. There's more muscle. What is it you really want to say?" Claire demanded.

"All the dinosaurs here have their growth accelerated to some extent. But three years? Claire, studies put the growth spurt for the T-Rex at anything between twelve to fourteen years of age. It's likely that they stopped growing at eighteen."

And Sarah was supposed to accomplish that six times faster. It had made so much sense back then. Who could wait that long to see the Indominus Rex at its full ferocious glory? "Henry said they'd found a way to make it possible for the animal to live a long healthy life." She stopped short and she knew Owen was thinking the same thing as she was.

Sarah's sibling had died in the egg from a defective heart. Sarah had a heart murmur. She was going to grow eighteen feet high and weigh at least five tonnes in three years and she had a heart murmur.

In that moment, Claire realised just how monumentally stupid she was. "I want to change now," she whispered, clutching the shirt in her lap, her eyes on the white dinosaur that was flinging around bits and pieces of what had once been a football.

"Claire...Claire, I'm sorry. I didn't think..."

She wasn't going to cry. No crying anymore. That wasn't allowed. Biting her cheek, she swallowed hard and sucked in a breath. Claire straightened her spine and looked Owen in the eye. "The latest MRI scan shows that her heart is not under any duress. She's perfectly healthy." She couldn't tell if she was speaking to herself or Owen. She didn't care.

He nodded. She didn't realise how cold her hands were until he took them in his. "It's not your fault," he said simply and for one moment she trembled. She wanted to rage at him because he was the nearest thing to her, because he was standing between her and herself. Instead, she simply nodded. Breathe in, breath out. She could expel the storm. "It'll be fine," he murmured, slipping an arm around her.

He could have been lying, but that was okay. It was okay to lie when you were scared, if only for a while until you could get back up and fight. Claire let Owen hold her, not knowing how her hand crept under his collar to fist at the material as she held back her fears and bit her cheek until she tasted slight copper in her mouth.

She did not cry.

... ... ...

"I'm sorry about the soccer ball," Claire apologised to Barry over the loud shrieks of the raptors that signalled their eager anticipation as Owen tossed into the paddock chunks of meat so large that he needed both hands to grab them. They were sitting inside the entrance to the cage, just in front of the outer gate, eating their own dinner while Sarah barked and growled, begging for scraps. "I'll get you another one."

Barry laughed ruefully, shaking his head. "That's the fifth one that's been destroyed by a dinosaur. You would think I'd learned by now. The fourth one is still somewhere in there. We never managed to spot the remains."

"How old were they?" she asked, watching as the raptors ate. There was a process she realised. No one touched the food yet even as Owen continued throwing in more meat. Blue was there, snarling and posturing, her head held high and curved like a striking snake. The other three circled around, Echo further back from Charlie and Delta. When Owen stopped dropping food in, Blue inspected the various pieces before selecting several for herself. Picking a corner, she brought her food over and ate, showing her back to the rest, confident in her right as beta of the pack. When it was clear that she had made her choice, Charlie and Delta picked what they wanted and hauled those off. They made sure to stay away from Blue. Whatever remained was for Echo, who was currently at the bottom of the pecking order.

"Echo!"

The bronzed raptor looked up, eyes alert as she fixed on her alpha on the walkway above.

"This one's for you." Owen held up the food before dropping it into the cage. She gave a soft thrumming chirp as she pounced on it, tearing into the meat right away. She ate more slowly than the others though, and kept looking over her shoulder at them.

"No bones, and I bet that's the softest cut out of the lot," Barry commented. "The girls were seven months when they got their last football. With the first three, we could go in and play along with them. Then they grew bigger. I had my doubts. Owen still wanted to try." Barry speared a garlic prawn and popped it into his mouth. "They decided he made a more interesting target than the ball. Something just switched. He made it out in one piece because he was faster, and because they saw him as the alpha. They still do, but we never go into the cage anymore."

"So how does he maintain that level of respect with them?"

"Owen is the only person who feeds them. He trains them everyday. He outthinks them and they know it. He saw them pouncing on each other near the wall right at the end of the paddock. They kept at it for hours and I believe he called you after that."

She remembered that call. "He asked me to send the construction teams down to build the walls higher. He said it was urgent. And he made me schedule night shifts for the paddock staff and told me to keep the lights on at night until the work was done."

"On the first night after the new extensions went up and there was no one around, the girls tried to jump out."

Claire almost choked on the iced tea she was sipping. "He didn't tell me that."

"Velociraptors can jump up to twice their height." Barry looked down at Sarah who had planted her head in Claire's lap in the hopes of getting the remains of the last tamale and was chirping and purring with admirable persistence. "I remember when the girls used to do that. If he could have, Owen would have brought them back to the bungalow with him."

"Blue!"

The beta raptor gave a piercing shriek but she stayed where she was even though she was staring at Echo.

"Good. That's enough Blue. You made your point."

Blue shook her head. Under the bright spotlights that drowned out the stars above, she glistened, the stripes down her sides gleaming like blue lightning. She stared at Owen, who kept a steady eye on her until she huffed loudly and stalked off with one last glare at Echo. Claire popped the remainder of the tamale into her mouth and Sarah promptly wailed in despair until Claire started rubbing the top of her snout and neck to placate her.

"Don't get too attached," Barry said quietly. His words squeezed her heart and made it hard to swallow.

"I know." He meant well and what he said was the truth. At some point, she would have to withdraw because Sarah would change. She just wondered if it was already too late.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, here's another chapter. Once more, it carried me away and ended up longer than expected. There's a guest appearance of sorts from another kickass redhead and if you liked it, please let me know! It was a last minute inclusion as I was sorting out plot details and I got so excited. Thank you to everyone who left me reviews! It makes my Muse feel loved and appreciated, and makes me endure crazy real world deadlines so I can write this. It also helps me keep tabs on what I'm doing right and that's just as important, so thank you to everyone who gave me details about those aspects of the story and writing._

 _Some answers to a couple of questions: Will Sarah live? Yes she will. Will she go rogue? No, but the movie is about the I-Rex escaping. So yes, spoiler right there. And that's all I can say without giving the whole game away. Timeline thingies? I thought Zach was 16 in the show; I could be wrong. But this is set about close to two years before JW. But you know, time is relative and I'll take Einstein's word on it. :P Did I do research about animal behaviour? I did read up some, yes I did, because I wanted to tell the best story I could._

 **IMPRINT**

 **X.**

Sarah did not want to open her mouth. The gold of her eyes had deepened, intensifying around the slit ebony of her pupils; it looked almost red sometimes. The ridges on her snout and sides of her skull had grown higher and bonier; some of the angles on her face had deepened in response and there were two horn-like protrusions that were growing above the orbits of her eyes. Suddenly, under the clear white light of the lab, with Sarah's leash looped around her wrist and Henry standing about two feet away and keying information into his tablet, Claire realised that at three months, Sarah didn't look so much like the tiny little baby who had snuggled in her makeshift Hermes scarf sling, or even the two-month-old who trotted energetically after her, her round white rump swaying from side to side in a way that Claire privately thought of as being adorable. There was now a leanness that had arrived with the dissipation of most of the softness that babyhood lent.

Claire's first thought was that it was all too fast. Sarah reaching three feet in length and gaining four inches in two weeks; Sarah not being able to sleep in the hutch now because she was simply too big and preferred the couch after Claire made it very clear that she was not to share the bed ("Boundaries are boundaries," Owen repeated after she'd asked twice); Sarah refusing to open her mouth and looking at her and Henry in turns with sharp teeth that protruded from her mouth, a mesh of jagged white against pale skin that had begun taking on a tinge of grey. She was flexing her claws subtly as well; the middle claw was curved like an eagle's talon and when measured, was almost as long as her index finger.

"Try again," Henry urged and that's when Claire had her second thought: that was not a very good idea, to say the least. She knew her dinosaur and Sarah's face had taken on a very obstinate look. Her tail, which now could bruise a person if she whipped it too hard at them, was somewhat stiff as well. So was her neck as she lifted her head to stare up at them. When measured at the hips, she was just under Claire's knee and when she drew herself up, she was three inches past. Nowadays, Claire found carrying her an event that inevitably left her with a burn in her arm muscles and back if it went past fifteen minutes. None of those were factors that helped persuade Claire that trying to forcible pry open Sarah's mouth—not that she had ever had to—was probably going to end badly and messily.

Still, she couldn't let Sarah get away with outright defiance.

"Do you have any food?" she asked.

Henry didn't even have to do anything; one of the other doctors who was present to observe left and came back shortly with some meat. Sarah lashed her tail excitedly from side to side when she caught its scent. When the doctor handed it to Claire, she almost jumped but a sharp "No" followed by a warning hand held up kept her grounded. She barked impatiently instead, pacing around Claire in a way that reminded her of a cat stalking a mouse.

"She listens to you," Henry said, sounding pleased. "For a dinosaur like her, that's something, especially when you have food in your hand."

Claire ignored him, focusing on Sarah. Reaching for the clicker in her pocket was instinctive. "Sarah, open up." Rolling the meat between her fingers, Claire held it up, near enough to the Indominus Rex's nose for her to get the full bloom of its scent and far enough to preserve her own fingers if the dinosaur made a leap for it. "Open up," Claire ordered firmly again, pressing on the clicker once more.

Sarah growled and Claire could see the skin around her mouth and teeth rippling. "Stop that right now." She raised her voice slightly, clipped the words out to express her displeasure. The growl deepened. "Hey, watch it!"

That had been pure Owen, the result of frequent visits to the raptor paddock to watch him train and put the raptors through their paces. And whether it was her voice or the fact that even balking raptors tended to listen to Owen when he had to get firmer with them, Sarah stopped at once.

Mutual respect. Sarah had done something Claire had wanted and Claire needed to know when to back out of a situation where she wouldn't win if she continued to push her luck. "Good girl," she said. "Henry, you're going to get just one shot."

The geneticist fumbled with his tablet before moving it into place. Claire tossed the meat high, Sarah leapt, her mouth wide open and there was the distinct sound of a camera click just before the hard snap of dinosaur jaws and teeth.

"Looks like she has her first full set of teeth," Henry muttered, fingers gliding over a screen that Claire couldn't see. "All seventy-four of them." He looked up at her before he went back to his tablet. "She's never been that stubborn."

Sarah nosed her hand for more food and Claire decided that she was not going to pick at a thin shred of meat hanging from one of Sarah's teeth. "She's never been stubborn," she countered. At least not in front of Henry. "Except for not letting the doctors touch her. I did tell you no needles."

Henry's discomfort showed momentarily on his face but he tucked it away smoothly, the way a magician made cards disappear into air and up his sleeves. The wizard of Jurassic World, that was corporate's unofficial nickname for Henry Wu. He raised dinosaurs from the dead and made new ones. "Speaking of needles, I want to run a series of tests on the Indominus."

"I already said—"

"Not blood. I want hers, not yours," he cut her off wryly. "She's a hybrid and I want to know what her exact capabilities are."

"I've put everything in my report."

"Only details about her food, eating habits, behavioural traits towards you and other factors in her immediate environment." He made a face. "You're not going to try the nursery paddock again, are you? I did tell you it wouldn't work out."

It was a subtle prod meant to remind her that he knew better. Bolstered by raptors' receptiveness to Sarah, Claire had arranged for a private visit to the baby paddock. She had persuaded Luis Zimmerman and Ben Diaz, the head supervisors who oversaw the handlers and the various babies inhabiting the paddock, to let her and Sarah in. She still shuddered when she recalled the experience. The Gallimimus babies had banded together in a flock that, in one fluid and noisy swoop, made for the furthest end of the paddock, which meant that they had run outside into the great outdoors screaming about the white dinosaur that had actually jumped so high her head just breached the top bar of the paddock stalls. Sarah had been supremely excited, peering through the spaces in the bars and clawing at them, even attempting to stuff her snout in between. At first Claire had thought it sweet; Sarah seemed eager to meet new dinosaurs. Then the Indominus Rex roared and Claire realised it wasn't an invitation to play. It was frustration at not being able to get at the dinosaurs inside. A lone Gallimimus appeared—Claire figured that in the wild, that one would be the first to die—and Sarah had gone eerily silent, inching back and forth along the paddock stall bars. Luis and Ben looked at her and they all stared at Sarah, who was trying to find a way in.

"Maybe we'll have better luck with the other babies. Like the Triceratops or Stegosaurus." Ben was tall and on the thin side, dark haired and dark-eyed and he had ten years of experience in zoos and sanctuaries. He was also being very kind, Claire realised as she dragged Sarah away from the Gallimimus pen. This visit was doomed to failure but she would see it out as graciously as she could.

There had been a bellowing contest between Sarah and a couple of Triceratops who looked frightened but stubbornly stood their ground while the rest ran away. The Apatosaurus babies, so used to craning their long necks to peer over the stall bars, had seen Sarah coming and lowed in alarm before lumbering away as quickly as they could.

It had taken a superhuman effort not to blush or look down or behave as though this was her fault. "I think we have enough information now," Claire had thanked Ben and Luis graciously. "I do apologise for the commotion." She opened the door to the jeep and told Sarah to get inside. The Indominus Rex hesitated, looked longingly at the entrance to the paddock and then acquiesced. It had been slightly mollifying, to see the amazement on the two men's faces when they realised Sarah not only understood commands, but could obey them. Still, it hadn't been enough at all to erase Claire's embarrassment. The closest analogy she could find for it was bringing your child to the playground to make friends and realising that in spite of your best efforts, your child didn't want friends; your child had loftier ambitions to be the neighbourhood terror.

"At least you know how high her prey drive is, even if she's still a baby." Even kittens could hunt grasshoppers; baby crocodiles went after tiny fish and frogs. In order to learn to hunt, animals played. It was driven by curiosity of what the other creature was, the discovery of what they were capable of, learning how to grab, to bite, to pin down another in order to make a kill. It was the same instinct at work in Sarah, born of nature but enhanced by Henry. She seemed to have bypassed the play stage or gone through it with extraordinary speed; what Claire had witnessed was an animal in full-blown hunting mode. She knew prey when she saw it. "What did you put inside her? What kind of capabilities are you talking about?"

"You know that's classified InGen intel." Henry locked his tablet and set it down, watching as Claire rubbed the heel of her palm against the top part of Sarah's snout. "How intelligent is she? How many commands can she process? We combined several genomes from various dinosaurs and it's worth exploring."

"This is not Sea World and she is not a dolphin or whale to perform tricks. You wouldn't have any use for knowing how smart she is." She stared calmly at Henry as she rose to her feet.

"It might help with making alterations to the paddock. You need to make sure the public is safe when you start showing her."

"Those walls are forty feet high and stronger than the ones we built for the Tyrannosaurus Rex. I'd say the public is safe enough."

"Claire—"

"If you want to run other kinds of tests on her, you tell Mr Masrani and then he and I can discuss it in a video conference." Claire tugged on Sarah's leash and the dinosaur came willingly enough. She had never liked the lab anyway. "Good day Henry."

... ... ...

Something was wrong.

It was a feeling she couldn't shake even as they drew up to the raptor paddock. Sarah had recognised the route by now and once they passed a certain cluster of trees and had taken a right turn, she had barked and warbled loudly, jumping excitedly at the window until it was smeared with some saliva and the condensation from her breath.

She had missed something.

Owen was already up on the walkway, so it was Barry who opened the gate for her and stayed with her because once they had tried leaving her alone inside and Claire's tension had been so palpable that it had drawn the raptors like a beacon and Sarah had been torn between making placating chirps and issuing tiny growls that made Blue press up against the bars and show her teeth to put the baby in its place.

"She's gotten bigger," Barry commented as he studied the Indominus Rex. Sarah regarded him warily, but as long as Barry never came into her space and Claire's—touching either of them was completely out of the question— she accepted him. Claire suspected this was again because of the raptors' influence. Perhaps with more visits, Sarah might mellow. "And look at that." He pointed to the teeth that had sprouted farther along her upper jaws. That had happened two days ago.

"She has a full set of teeth now. Henry says there are seventy-four of them."

Barry let out a low whistle and Sarah cocked her head at him. "Except for the Mosasaurus, she has more teeth than any other animal on this island."

"She was designed for that." To her ears, it sounded more like an indictment rather than a fact. Sarah was sniffing around and when she got too close to the bars, Claire tugged her back. She was getting bigger, but the space in between looked like a snug fit and even though the raptors seemed fine with Sarah, Claire would not let her in the paddock and Owen had seconded that opinion. "That's their territory and while they know she's a baby, they're also very aware that she's not part of the pack. I'm their alpha and they know you're Sarah's."

The sound of a pig's squealing cut through her thoughts. The leash snapped taut as Sarah lunged for the bars and pulled her off balance. Barry grabbed her, saving her from getting better acquainted with the leaf-strewn floor and then he let her go almost as quickly as he had leapt to her aid because Sarah pivoted, her shoulders hunched, neck lowered as she hissed at him, warning him away from Claire.

"Stop that." Claire stepped in front of her, blocking Barry from Sarah's view. "Barry's okay. Everything's okay." Sarah looked at her and Claire could practically see the dinosaur thinking about what she'd said. Then the pig squealed again, closer this time and Sarah forgot about everything else when that pink noisy body of blood and meat burst through the thick foliage and trees, grunting and shrilling loudly as it ran for the safety of the small passage built into the wall. The Indominus Rex let out a shriek of her own as she ran towards the end of the bars, pulling herself as upright as Claire had ever seen her stand, her entire head through the space between the bars as she snapped her jaws.

"Sarah!" This was the second time Sarah had seen a training session involving a pig run. The first time, she had done nothing but sit very still beside Claire, those huge eyes taking in everything. Obviously, things were vastly different now. When Sarah completely disregarded any commands to back up from the bars, Claire had to haul her away with both hands wrapped around the leash. A quick look above revealed that Owen was watching them. The sun was burning bright overhead so she couldn't quite see his face but she knew he was concerned. "What is wrong with you?" she muttered in frustration. "You usually aren't this stubborn."

And that was when she had it. _She's never been that stubborn._ It had always been a point of pride for Claire that Sarah was as good as gold in the lab. She had been as docile as any pet, so much so that Claire had to warn a few staff and doctors from getting too close and from petting her. After that debacle with the aborted blood test, she didn't have to but still she'd behaved, as long as Claire had handled her.

 _She's never been that stubborn._ The only behavioural traits Claire had included in her reports to him had to do with things like aggression, levels of playfulness, Sarah's intense attentiveness to anything that moved or swayed in the wind, her increasing appetite. She had left out as much as she could that would give away Sarah's intelligence levels, stating only the basics. She had certainly left out any challenges she faced training Sarah.

So how would Henry know?

In the background, she could hear Owen calling out instructions to the raptors but his words barely registered above the loud buzz of her own thoughts. Adrenaline under her skin made her hair stand. Perhaps the better question that needed immediate answering was this: How did Henry know? Because Claire was suddenly sure as hell that he did know. The bastard knew much more than he was letting on and he had slipped up in the lab. That was why he had looked so uncomfortable. She had assumed it was her reference to the blood test and that had been her mistake.

She needed to make a call and she couldn't do it here with the two discretely placed security cameras positioned at the diagonal left and right corners. "Sarah, come on." Claire bit her lip and stopped herself from cursing aloud when the dinosaur dug in her clawed feet and absolutely refused to leave the paddock. She barked at Claire when she tried again and there was an answering call from the raptors, all of who were now staring at her like she was a particularly tasty dessert.

"Hey!" Owen hollered and she heard the sharp sound of the clicker pierce the air. "Eyes on me! Blue!"

The beta raptor turned from her with a snarl. "Watch it!" Owen corrected sharply. Charlie hissed in support of her beta. "Charlie, don't give me that shit! Delta, lock it up."

Echo was the only one who remained quiet. She stole a quick look at Sarah, then Claire, and went back to looking at Owen.

"Good." Owen lifted his hand. "And, we're moving."

"If you want to leave, now's your chance," Barry said quietly. "I doubt she will mind if you want to step out for a minute." He indicated to the titanium halter. "You could tether her to that. I'll watch her."

"Thank you. And for just now too." She looped the end of the leash securely to the halter, double-knotting it. A quick but hard tug ensured that it stayed in place. Claire stepped out of the paddock and closed the gate. Sarah chirped and warbled, calling to her but lost interest when the raptors started leaping in the air for the treats that Owen tossed at them.

The raptor paddock was situated near a particularly scenic part of the island: a cliff's edge lined with palm and coconut trees and grass with the sapphire blue ocean beating itself into glistening foamy waves against the high jagged rocks. Here the wind was wild and it tore at her, whipping her hair into her mouth and eyes as Claire walked towards the trees.

Taking out her phone, she began keying in Lowery's number before she deleted it. No, not Lowery. She had no doubt he could probably locate how Henry was keeping tabs on her—he was the surveillance and tech expert on the island—but he wouldn't be in a position to help solve it for her. Doing so might get him into trouble; she couldn't conceive of how but he worked on the same location as Henry and for the same company and if she could keep him out of it, she would.

There was one other person she could call. Claire could count the number of people she trusted that much with one hand and she had always been one of them. It had been years since they'd met at Harvard and it had been a friendship that had continued in spite of their hectic schedules. It also helped that they had, until Claire's move to Isla Nublar, been involved in the same social scene as well. Yes, she might be able to help, Claire thought as she keyed in the numbers and hit the call button.

She picked up on the fifth ring. "Hi! Oh my goodness, where are you?"

"Hi Pepper. I'm on the island, where else would I be?"

"Sounds like you're near the beach. Are you finally getting some sun?"

Claire snorted. "Are you kidding? Congratulations on being CEO of Stark Industries, again."

It was Pepper's turn to snort. "Thanks, I suppose. This really should be Tony's job but..."

"But you do it better than he ever could and he realised that?"

"You think?" It was noisy and she'd had to turn up the volume of her phone but Pepper's doubt came through quite clearly.

"Pepper, please. You ran in six-inch heels from Obadiah Stane and his behemoth suit and helped your boyfriend put that mad man down. I've been reading the news. Stark Industries is doing better than ever. There's nothing you can't do."

"Except lure Tony away from his workshop. But that's another story entirely. So what's going on with you?"

She hesitated.

"Claire, are you okay?"

She could picture Pepper, with her red hair pinned back in the slick ponytail she preferred, with that slight concerned frown and the ramrod straight posture she always adopted whenever something came up, an unconscious response that signalled her readiness to tackle whatever problem it was that arose. "I think I have a problem."

"How can I help?"

"I think someone's spying on me and I need to find out how. I'm not sure if it's my phone, or my computer or..." Or cameras in her apartment. That was the part she couldn't bear to say out loud, not yet. "I can't tell Mr Masrani because I don't have any evidence and I honestly don't know who else I can talk to about this."

"Okay, okay. But if I manage to find out who's spying on you, you do realise that you couldn't use that information because we got it for you and your boss is probably going to be very concerned that I basically hacked into the systems on Isla Nublar? Plus I'm sure that violates almost all the confidentiality clauses in the contract you've signed with Masrani Global."

"There is someone here who could find out for me but I'm afraid he might get into trouble and I wouldn't be in a place to help him. This is InGen we're talking about here and if what I think is happening really is the case, then it specifically involves InGen's Security Division."

"Victor Hoskins. I met him. All right, I'm going to put Jarvis on it right now. He'll be able to help you. He's the soul of discretion and I'm going to authorise him not to tell me anything unless you say so. In fact, this phone call never happened on your network or mine, or any other networks for that matter."

"He can do that?" Claire's eyes widened. "Who is this guy?"

"Basically the god of the cyber world and then some. There's a lot Jarvis can do. Claire, do you still have that pepper spray?"

"No, but I've been thinking about it."

"You should start carrying some since Vic Hoskins is involved. Promise you'll call me if things get...complicated."

Claire smiled. "Are you going to ask Tony to come visit in his nice suit? He might be too busy saving the world."

"Maybe. But I might visit in one of his nice suits. I'm sure he could configure one for me."

"I'll have a whole new category created for that: Superhero visitors. Just don't bring the Hulk. Thanks Pepper. I owe you."

"No you don't. Although if you could somehow help me avoid meeting Aldrich Killian within the next hour, I would be in your debt."

Claire could hear the face Pepper was pulling. "Sorry Potts, I'd serve him to Rexy if I could but no one opens Paddock Nine unless...well, maybe if it were a life or death situation but that's never happened. And Owen would kill me if I gave something as slimy as Killian to his raptors."

"Who's Owen?" Pepper pounced.

"I'll tell you more about him next time. You should know that he wore board shorts to our first date."

"And you let him live?"

"Well, I made an itinerary and actually brought it with me so..."

"Dearing, there's organised and then there's organised."

"I know, I'm learning."

"Miss Potts, I have the information Miss Dearing requires. And you're going to have to leave in five minutes if you wish to get to your appointment in time."

"Great. Jarvis, please help Miss Dearing with anything she requires. Claire, I have to go. Don't forget, call me."

"I will. Good luck with Killian. And thanks again, Pepper."

"Don't mention it." And then she was gone.

"Miss Dearing?"

For a tech geek, Jarvis had a wonderful voice and the loveliest crisp accent. He also possibly worked faster than Superman could fly. "Yes Jarvis. Firstly, thank you for helping me out with this."

"Miss Potts thinks very highly of you Miss Dearing so it's my pleasure. I'm afraid your suspicions are right. I have detected surveillance feeds in your apartment and they lead back to an InGen Security server."

At first Claire felt cold. Then, she felt so furious that at that moment, she would have opened Paddock Nine if it meant she could throw Hoskins and Henry inside. "Where are the cameras?"

"In the hall and kitchen."

Oh thank God, Claire breathed silently. She had some shreds of privacy left. But her momentary relief was completely drowned out by the blazing anger she felt at Jarvis' next announcement.

"I also detected some suspicious activity with regard to your handphone and have blocked these accordingly for the duration of this call. How would you like me to deal with this situation?"

If she physically took out the cameras, they would just put new ones back in different places. "Jarvis, what are the chances of InGen or any of the park's online security measures detecting your presence in the system?"

"None. I'll be able to elude them with ease."

That was frightening to know, but reassuring too. "Could you block any and all surveillance of me in the apartment, including any new cameras they set up?"

"Done. Is there anything else you require?"

Basically, Pepper had handed her the cyber equivalent of a skeleton key and told her she could do whatever she wanted with it. She'd done that precisely because she knew Claire was the kind of person who wouldn't go wild with such power. There was just one other thing she needed to know. "Jarvis, could you find out exactly what Sarah's made of?"

"The Indominus Rex...designed to be eighteen feet tall, fifty feet long... lifespan estimated at an average of forty years..." She would be on the brink of her seventies then. "Designed using genomes from the Giganotosaurus, Majungasaurus, Carnotaurus, Rugops, Therizinosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor. She also has genetic strands from tree frogs, snakes, cuttlefish and primates."

"What? Primates, as in monkeys?"

"And apes. A mix of capuchin and chimpanzee to be precise. Do you want the specifics of the other species?"

"No." Claire reminded herself to breathe in and out, and to loosen her grip on her phone before she cracked it. While she knew that there was a need to fill in the gaps in genomes, she couldn't understand why the hell Henry had added snakes and frogs and cuttlefish to the mix. And monkeys. What the hell was going on?

 _"I want to run a series of tests on the Indominus."_

"Is there any information about..." she groped for the word, "about hypothesised abilities of the Indominus Rex?"

"Dr Wu hasn't very much in his database about this. InGen Security Division servers may yield more information."

"No, I think we've gone through enough backdoors for today." To be honest, Claire thought she had heard and done too much, period. "Thank you Jarvis. That's all I need."

"Very well Miss Dearing." There was a pause and she thought he'd hung up. "Do take care. I highly recommend Miss Potts' suggestion of pepper spray. You could consider a taser as well. An acquaintance of mine swears by it."

"I'll think about it. Thanks."

"Good day, Miss Dearing."

She was going to have to tell Owen. Claire slipped her phone back into her pocket, shuddering at the thought of eyes that had watched her and Owen and Sarah in the apartment, of ears that had listened to every conversation they shared. She wondered what Henry and Hoskins would do when they discovered they could no longer spy on her. In spite of the warm sun, she wrapped her arms around herself as she trudged back to the paddock.

Sarah was curled up on the ground with her back to Barry while he stayed on the other side of the enclosed space. The raptors were gone and at first Claire thought she was sleeping. But Sarah never slept during the day. She squinted against the bright sun, walked faster. As she got closer, she saw what Sarah was really up to.

She had snuck part of the leash into her mouth and was very quietly and furiously grinding her jaws over it. Claire started running. "Stop her! She's biting through it."

On that count, she was wrong. Sarah had bitten through it and Barry found that out when his attempts to grab the portion of the leash still attached to her harness buckle met with teeth that had opened leather. He dodged Sarah's bite as Claire flung open the gate and both of them realised the attack for the feint it had been when Sarah rushed for the bars that stood between her and the paddock.

"Sarah!" Claire screamed as they both ran forward but it was too late. There was a slight squeeze and Claire had had enough time to brush her fingers against the end of Sarah's tail when the dinosaur popped through the space and tumbled out into the paddock.

There was shouting above. In the distance, a pig was squealing and Sarah leapt to her feet with an excited bark. Claire looked at the button to open the gate and felt Barry's hands close over her arms. "No," he said, looking about as horrified as she felt.

The pig came bursting out through the grass and never saw the Indominus Rex barrelling towards it until it was too late. Claire could smell blood in the warm air as her Sarah sunk her claws into the fleshy sides of the small pig and opened it up. She struck for the throat. She missed once and ripped its snout. The pig screamed then stopped as Sarah's second attempt succeeded.

That was how the raptors found her. Sarah crouched over her kill, white and ruby red, her tail lashing. Blue stood in front of the group. She barked. Once. Twice. Sarah growled and shook the carcass. She didn't want to give it up.

Blue stepped forward with an angry snarl, the others following behind her in a loose circle.

She was suffocating; everything had turned ash grey as she watched the raptors close in on the Indominus Rex. "Oh God," Claire breathed, prayed. Not again.

She was not thirteen. This was not her mother's car. There was no truck with a driver who'd slept too little. This could not be happening. But it was. Everything was spinning out of control as it had that day and she was helpless. Again. Claire gasped and tasted the warm salt of tears on her lips.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, I have to mention the response to the last chapter. Firstly, WHOA! Many thanks to the vast majority of you who enjoyed it and told me as much. I was so relieved and I'm so glad that I'm not alone when I thought "Hey, that could be plausible and fun!" Individually and collectively, you guys spelled out all the reasons why it works and for anyone who thought it was unnecessary, go read what these wonderful people have written. Secondly, I mentioned guest star so that's what the MCU involvement will be limited to. A cameo does not a crossover make, and the fun effectiveness of a cameo is to use it like pixie dust: just a pinch will do_ _. I just need to clarify this because there were a couple of questions in reviews. **GlassGazer** pointed out something I missed, so I rectified the last chapter slightly. Claire's phone and computer are bug free, and Jarvis is keeping an eye on Owen's place and stuff as well. This chapter is all about pack dynamics and getting Sarah out of the paddock. The plot moves forward with the oncoming ones. As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please, let me know what you think! _

**IMPRINT**

 **XI.**

Sarah.

" _It's going to be fine, Claire."_

 _But there was so much blood. "Mum..."_

" _Just remain calm. It's okay."_

"Sarah," Claire called. She dug her nails into her palms, felt the sharp pinch of their edges cut into her flesh. Don't scream. Don't scream. Remain calm. "Sarah, come here."

The Indominus Rex looked in her direction, her muzzle bathed in blood as she clamped down harder onto the carcass of the pig. Her eyes darted, flashing furious gold between Claire and the raptors that were coming closer.

"Sarah, please." Her hands were around the bars now.

"No!" Barry whirled from her side and Claire tasted blood again when she bit down on a yell as he went down in the dirt, scuffling furiously with one of the guards assigned to protect her and Sarah. The raptors shrieked in unison. Above on the walkway she heard shouts, the sounds of a fight. Blue rushed the wall, her neck craned back, eyes fixed on something above. Echo's tail lashed over Sarah's head; Charlie flanked the baby dinosaur on the other side. With a distressed call, Sarah leapt off the pig only for Echo to dart in and round her back so that the baby was once again between Charlie and herself.

They weren't trying to kill her. They were protecting her from whatever it was that was making Blue wild. Then Claire threw herself away from the bars as Delta came rushing in, snapping so furiously that Claire could feel the force of her bite through the air. The bars shook as she crashed into them.

The guard had a gun drawn. Like all the others, he was allowed to use live ammunition because of the twenty-six million dollar price tag of the Indominus.

"Drop it!" Barry was yelling, his hand wrapped around the guards wrist. He took a knee to the ribs and grunted in pain. Behind the bars, Delta was going wild, filling the air with her snarls and spitting screams as she clawed at the metal. She was trying to get to Barry, to kill the man who meant to shoot her and the other raptors.

Barry slammed the guard's hand down but the man held onto the gun. Claire didn't think. She simply leapt for the weapon, twisting it out of the man's hand with both of hers as she wrenched it free. It had been years since she'd stepped onto a gun range but some things could never be forgotten after they'd been drilled into you. Her hands moved, shaking but sure on sleek black as she pushed the button, discharging the clip that bounced once on the bed of dried leaves. She pulled back on the rack, pushing up on the slide lock to reveal the chamber. It was empty. She tossed it as far she could through opened gate. When she turned back, both men were staring at her, open-mouthed.

"Thanks." Then Barry decked the guard on the temple, knocking him out cold. He was right behind Claire as they both tore up the stairs to the walkway. She heard the hard thud of bone on flesh and cleared the last step to see Owen smash his fist into the face of another guard who went down hard. He caught the unconscious man as he rolled towards the edge, dragging him back to safety away from the raptor cries which were shredding the air. She could hear them pacing below; she could also hear Sarah's voice. The Indominus Rex was still alive. The crew had wrangled another guard to the ground. And that left one lone guard who was hemmed in between them and had his weapon drawn and trained on the raptors below.

"Put the gun down." Owen held up both his hands. "There's four of them and one of you and I guarantee that you won't be able to shoot fast enough even if a single bullet were enough to stop a raptor."

"Call them off from the Indominus Rex and I'll stand down."

"It doesn't work that way. I can't control them like that."

"Call them off or I am going to shoot. Mr Masrani said—"

"If you shoot one of those Velociraptors, we won't have any chance of getting the Indominus Rex out." Claire came up from behind Owen, stepping over the body of the prone guard. "You'll make them completely wild, they will never listen to Mr Grady or Mr Diallo again and then you'll have to answer to Mr Masrani for not just the asset but for the research programme that needs those raptors."

The guard hesitated. Claire stepped closer to the edge. She looked completely relaxed, save for the bone-white death grip she had on the railing. "Look at them. If they wanted to kill her, she would be dead by now."

Of the five pairs of eyes that looked up, only one remained trained on her. The raptors kept Sarah behind them while they stood in front, a wall of solid, sinewy muscle, perfect killing machines that were gently using their tails to brush her back when she tried pushing her way to the front. They shifted with each dart she made as well, effectively barring the way as they continued to glare at the guard. Of all the people in their sight, they had singled out the one who was a genuine threat.

"How are you going to get her out then?"

This man didn't care about Sarah, but he cared about his job. "I'm sure that Mr Grady and Mr Diallo have their methods. They've been handling the raptors and their work record has been impeccable. I trust them and since I am in charge of the Indominus, I'm responsible for her welfare." She inclined her head and gave him a meaningful look. "If anything happens, it's my call and everyone here is a witness to that."

He would do it, she could see it in his eyes, in the way his stance was relaxing ever so slightly. "I'll have the paddock staff assist you in bringing your colleagues to the office. There are some medical supplies there and," she motioned to the paddock crew who hesitated for a few seconds before letting the other guard up, "all of you can wait there until I retrieve the asset."

She could hear the deep breath he took. "You're the Operations Manager." Then he holstered the gun and Claire almost deflated with relief.

Within five minutes, they cleared the premises and Claire, Owen and Barry were left on the walkway with several of the paddock crew. Blue had stopped her restless pacing. Instead, she barked orders at Delta and Charlie who proceeded to scout alongside the perimeters of the paddock. They were checking to see if the place was truly secured. Echo stuck with Sarah, and Claire inhaled sharply when the bronze raptor lowered her snout to nudge the Indominus who warbled and nudged back.

"Look at that," Owen said softly as Barry murmured something she couldn't quite catch in French.

"Are they...is she part of their pack?"

"I think they might be ready to include her," Barry answered. "That's the good part."

"The bad part will be trying to take one of their pack away from them," Owen finished. He looked grim, which worried her but he was clearly as fascinated as they were to see the way the pack responded to Sarah. Charlie and Delta returned, and while Blue and Echo did not bother beyond a quick chitter to confirm that the coast was clear, Sarah would not be satisfied until they had given her a nudge. She was used to physical affection, Claire had always hugged and petted her as much as possible, and she wanted the same from the raptors. That they indulged her was pretty damned amazing actually.

Then Blue stepped towards the dead pig and Sarah forgot all about affection and rushed to defend her kill. Blue spun around, standing between Sarah and the food. She snapped and hissed, ignoring the Indominus' angry shrills. When Sarah tried to rush past her, she swept her head to the side and knocked her off her feet. Owen's hand closed over hers and Claire realised that she was holding her breath and trying to twist the railing beneath her hands out of shape.

Sarah wailed, scrambling to her feet as Blue came up and knocked her down once more. The other three paced around restlessly; Charlie snapped at Echo when she got too near and Echo responded by backing away even though she lifted her rippling lips to show all her teeth. Delta came in, leaning forward aggressively until a warning from Owen pulled her up short. Apparently last month's fight was over but not forgotten and Echo was still being reminded of that.

"What's she doing?" Claire whispered when Blue took her snout and pinned Sarah to the ground. The Indominus Rex screeched, arms flailing but she didn't scratch Blue. She daren't scratch Blue, Claire realised.

"Social skills," Owen replied softly. "Blue's teaching Sarah her place in the pack."

If she hadn't seen it for herself, Claire might have rolled her eyes. Imprinting, trust, social skills. These were animals, plain and simple. As long as they were fed and full, and ready for display, that was all she had cared about because that was a large part of her job. Now, she knew so much more. She knew better. "She won't...have to hurt her, will she?"

"No," Barry shook his head. "It would make no sense. The pack could not survive if the elders harmed the young. This is just discipline. And Blue is a balanced beta. She's had Owen to learn from."

"That, and millions of years of instinct," Owen added.

Blue finally lifted her snout when Sarah stopped thrashing. She kept her head next to the baby, breathing over her as the Indominus' white flanks heaved from her exertions. Sarah chirped loudly, a pitiful sound that made Claire's heart hurt. But she lay where she was, where Blue had put her, even when the larger dinosaur stepped away. She didn't get up until all four of them started feeding in order of the present hierarchy, which meant Blue went first, Charlie and Delta together, and then Echo. By the time Sarah was permitted to come forward, there was just blood left and some bone fragments.

"Wait a second, Blue's not eating." Barry pointed to the beta raptor. Sure, she'd swallowed a couple of mouthfuls, but there was meat leftover and she was just standing there. Everyone else was done.

"Is she waiting?" Claire asked.

"Looks like it," he agreed. "The question is, what's she waiting for?"

They found out soon enough when Sarah approached the raptor. She came with her head, body and tail lowered, chirping and chittering softly at the meat and then at Blue. Once within two feet of Blue, Sarah stopped, choosing instead to circle around as she begged for her food. She lowered her head so much that her nose was practically amongst the leaves. Blue let her do this for a couple of minutes. Then, she looked up at Owen and when he didn't tell her otherwise, she pulled scraps of meat for Sarah and dropped them in front of the ecstatic Indominus who began gorging herself at once. This continued until all the meat was gone. Then Sarah, with her bloodied mouth, touched snouts with Blue but it was without the rambunctiousness that she had displayed with all the rest.

The other raptors came around and together, they herded Sarah towards the part of the paddock with the most foliage where the trees, full of leaves and too high and straight for the raptors to use in anyway, grew most thickly. Sarah looked back at Claire, and then with a bounce in her step, followed after Blue who was in the lead.

"Where are they taking her? I need to get her back." She made a move to follow, and that's when she realised Owen's hand was still resting over hers. Claire darted a quick look at Barry before surreptitiously slipping her hand back to her side. She knew she was blushing, because Owen had the slightest hint of a grin on his face. Thankfully though, no teasing remark followed.

"My guess is that we're going to be here awhile," he said. "The girls are showing her around. If Sarah's one of them now, then she needs to know the territory. She won't want to leave and the girls aren't going to be the least inclined to let her go either."

Although she knew that Sarah was not going to come to any harm, Claire couldn't help but feel dismayed by that news. And two minutes later, the reason for her dismay made itself known by the ominous buzzing of her phone. There was no picture, just a name that appeared on the screen. She took a breath, squared her shoulders and ignoring the curious looks both raptor handlers shot her, took the call and turned her back on them.

"Claire, what is going on?" Alex demanded. "Security reported an altercation with the raptor crew and handlers. They said you ordered them to stand down. And we need to get the asset out of that paddock right now."

That was something that she would have said, had she been the one in the Control Room. "Yes Alex, I did. They were going to shoot the raptors, which would have been utterly futile and which would have ruined the research programme InGen has been running—"

"How did she even get in?"

What Alex really meant was how the hell did Claire manage to let that happen but it was a fair question, so she answered it. "She bit through her leash when I stepped out to make a call. It's no fault of Mr Diallo's; she hid what she was doing from him."

"Hm." There was a world of scepticism in there but at least he had the good grace not to push it. "I did advise that you stop bringing the asset over to the raptor paddock."

"Henry said there was no problem. And it's not a problem. The Indominus is quite safe."

"The raptor looked like it was about to eviscerate her."

"Well, it didn't and she's fine." Claire tried not to sound so short with him; she'd thought the same thing as well for the first few seconds. "We just need some time to get her out of there."

"We need to get her out of there now. I'm sending ACU—"

"No!" The stunned silence over the line confirmed that her ears hadn't deceived her. She had just shouted at Alex. "Look, I have this covered. I will get the Indominus out by the end of today, I will write the reports you need, I'll call Mr Masrani myself and explain what happened."

"Claire, it's not that simple."

Of course it wasn't going to be that simple. There would be multiple meetings held and there would be reports to reply to more reports and her life was going to be a sinkhole of paperwork and conference calls and she was willing to bet her car that there would be talk of taking Sarah away from her and leaving her in Paddock 11 permanently. Like hell that would happen. Maybe the day when Sarah was too big and started looking at Claire the way she did food but today was not that day and it would not be that day until three months later. They still had three more months together.

"Alex, I will get her out of the paddock by tonight." She waited with baited breath for his response, watching each slow step she took on the walkway as she paced further from Owen and Barry. She was halfway across the length of the paddock and she spotted bright eyes on her before they vanished deeper into the thick green shelter of the plants and trees.

"Alright, I'm going to call Mr Masrani and see what he says. I'll let you know what his decision is. But if you cannot get her out of there by tonight, I'm sending in ACU even if Victor Hoskins himself arrives to say no. That dinosaur is the reason why our online ticket sales have skyrocketed by seventy percent even though she's just a few months old."

It stung, having someone else speak to Mr Masrani when that should have been her call, in every way. "Alright, let me know what he says. If you're going to send in ACU, you should make it at least three units. These raptors are, with the exception of the T-Rex, the most dangerous animals on this island. And by tonight, I mean midnight."

"Noted. I'll get back to you."

He cut the call and Claire slid the phone back into her pocket. Turning, she saw Owen standing a short distance away. "We have until midnight, if Mr Masrani agrees, to get Sarah out of there without ACU intervening." His expression hardened and Claire realised that she had never seen Owen furious before. She would probably get that chance when she informed him about InGen spying on them. "So, that gives us eight hours."

Both of them looked out over the paddock. It was hard to spot the dinosaurs, but there was the occasional bark and telltale swaying and rustling of the long grasses. "We'll let them have an hour together. And then we'll try."

"It'll be fine," she said, schooling her features into a mask of calm reassurance. "We can do this." Now was not the time to tell Owen about what Jarvis had discovered. He had enough to worry about. "Can we see them from the walkway?"

"Not from here. Usually I watch them from the other end."

"Lead the way then."

... ... ...

Three hours later, the sun was practically gone, the huge spotlights had just hummed to life and were gaining in intensity, and Claire, Owen and Barry were becoming collectively more antsy.

At first Claire had tried standing at the gate, with it closed of course, and calling for Sarah. The Indominus Rex answered with a call but never showed herself; she was having too good a time frolicking with the raptors.

Food hadn't worked at all, not even dropping it in different sections of the paddock because Sarah had learned that she didn't get to eat first, she ate when Blue gave her permission to and she made no attempt to wander off to the other portions of food by herself. If she had, there would have been several people above with nets and nooses, all waiting for a chance that never came to fish her out.

They had tried another pig run. The pig had made it out this time and the raptors willingly went through their paces again but the Indominus Rex showed no inclination to move beyond the edge of the trees and merely stood there, watching as Owen trained the older dinosaurs and ignoring Claire's calls to her. When someone had attempted to get a noose around Sarah, she had given an angry shrill before making a beeline for the raptors, who promptly closed ranks. They were now back to hiding in the trees again even though Owen had sent the rest of the crew to the office in the hopes that it would reassure the dinosaurs.

There was something they hadn't tried. Claire doubted it had occurred to Owen and she had been praying that the other attempts would succeed. But desperate times called for desperate measures and she had more to lose if she didn't at least give this a shot. 'This is so stupid,' she thought, cringing as she approached Owen who was talking to Barry about what else they could do before ACU descended on the paddock with Taser-rifles and netguns. 'But you have to try. Think of it as selling an idea to corporate.' None of that made her feel any better. But she was going to do it anyway.

"I..." She paused when both men turned to look at her. "I have an idea."

Barry and Owen exchanged a look when it became clear she was not going to continue. "Okay," Owen said, looking her over in a way that he wasn't entirely sure what she was about. "Let's hear it."

Claire swallowed. "Well, we've tried everything possible that could work. And, since we're close to exhausting our options, perhaps now would be a good time to try this. Especially since we have slightly less than five hours..." She checked her watch and looked up to see Barry walking off. "Where is he going?"

"Barry's a smart guy, not to mention sensitive. He doesn't know you as well as I do and if that almighty blush on your face isn't a dead giveaway that what you want to propose is embarrassing for you...Any way, he can take a hint, even if you didn't mean to give it. I have to say though," Owen leaned a hip against the railing and raised an eyebrow at her, "I'm really curious as to what this plan involves."

It was impossible but her face had gotten even hotter. Resisting the urge to press her hands against her cheeks, Claire folded them primly together instead. "It's quite simple really, and there's good basis for it."

"I'm listening."

It wasn't his listening that was the problem. It was that teasing smirk and the growing glint in his eye that warned her Owen probably had an idea of what she had in mind. But he was going to make her say it anyway. Darn him. "As you know, Sarah has gotten better with us being around each other but she doesn't like us being too close."

"So what exactly are you proposing we do about it?" There it was again, that smoky tone which turned anything that came out of his mouth into audio porn.

Claire glared at Owen, who now had a full-blown shameless grin on his face. "You know what? I bet it's not specifically you Sarah gets jealous about. I bet any man that comes near me is going to get her hackles up. If I asked Barry—"

Owen moved so quickly that she only had time to gasp after he slid his arm around her waist and yanked her hard against him. She pushed against his shoulder and he leaned forward, bending her back slightly so that every part of her was pressed up against him and goddamn, it felt too good even though part of her should be angry with him for making this a public display. "Don't even think about it," Owen growled, his face so close to hers that she felt the warmth of his breath on her lips as her eyes went to his mouth and stayed glued there, ignoring the commands of her brain. She gulped, audibly.

The temptation to lean up on her toes and kiss him to find out if it would give her a Kings of Leon experience, as Zara always put it, was interrupted by a high-pitched shriek below. Well, she could wait another day to find out if kissing Owen would set her and her sex on fire. "What do you know? My plan worked." She smiled sweetly up at him before peering over the railing to see Sarah pacing beneath them, visibly upset while the other raptors emerged from the trees.

"And then some," Owen groaned as he eyed Sarah, clearly disgruntled. "Come on." He grabbed her hand, keeping her close to him as they descended the steps to the gate. When they got there, Sarah was already trying to squeeze back in. Except that the raptors were there nudging her and stepping in the way each time Sarah tried to move towards the bars. "Hey, knock it off." Owen stepped in front of Claire as the raptors spun around, snorting and growling. "Back up, all of you." He moved forward, his hand stretched out in a visual command. Blue moved back before stopping and opening her mouth at them. Charlie and Delta followed suit, letting Claire have a good look at one of death's many faces as she stared at all that teeth. "Blue, that's enough. Charlie and Delta, quit that right now," he ordered sternly, raising his voice but never shouting. The sound of their hisses filled the air, but the teeth went away.

Further behind, Echo was trying to round up Sarah and push her away. "Echo, hold."

The bronze raptor stopped, her head turned to face Owen. "Good, good girls. She doesn't belong to us. She has to go back." Without turning around, Owen spoke to her. "Call Sarah now."

Claire moved out from behind Owen by a little so that Sarah could see her. "Sarah, come here." The baby dinosaur looked uncertainly at the raptors before switching her gaze to Claire. "It's okay, come on," she urged. "Come." Claire bent down, stretched out her arms and held them out for Sarah.

Echo grunted, clicking nervously as the Indominus Rex began inching away. She followed closely behind and Claire could see no visible change in her behaviour but Owen must have because he let out a sharp "No" which brought Echo up short. The other three raptors lashed their tails, visibly agitated but Owen stepped closer to the bars and Claire made herself focus on Sarah who was now navigating her way through their shifting legs, avoiding snouts that came back up when Owen told them to stop. Sarah grunted as she squeezed her way through the bars and Claire was reaching for her when she popped free and into her arms.

"Oh you naughty girl," Claire scolded even as she hugged Sarah against her while the baby snuffed loudly at her neck and ear, her claws resting gently on Claire's shoulders. "You bad dinosaur," she murmured and looked up to see Blue and the rest of the raptors glaring at her. It was as if she had stolen Sarah from them. "I think it's time you said good night to them. Just let them know I'm going to take good care of you."

Gathering Sarah into her arms, Claire picked her up and looked over at Owen. He gave her a slight nod, so she made herself take the necessary steps that would bring her closer to the bars. She stopped at the fifth step, near enough for Sarah to stretch out her neck and touch her snout to Blue's. Then there was Charlie, Delta and finally Echo. The raptors still scared her pretty much senseless, so she didn't quite look at them, just those flaring nostrils and the way their skin rippled and moved as Sarah bumped her snout against theirs. Her knees felt a little weak when she stepped back, but she had done it and it felt good and so did the quiet approval on Owen's face when he walked her out. Barry met them halfway out and he looked impressed as well.

"That was good, letting the raptors smell her before you left."

"I think they hate me."

Barry laughed. "They don't. But it might take some time before they realise Sarah is not going to be a part of the pack, not the way they are at least."

"It might be the last time they get to see each other," Claire said glumly as she eyed the guards who had arrived to replace the other shift. They all looked about as friendly as winter in northern Canada and she knew it was probably thanks to what happened earlier. Security on the island was supplied by InGen and suddenly she found herself wondering just how much they had said to Vic Hoskins and Henry about her.

"I know the next few days are probably not going to be easy, to say the least," Owen added as Claire grimaced slightly. "Just let me know how you're doing."

"Aren't you still going to come over?"

Owen looked surprised. "Would that be okay? I thought you'd be really busy."

"Misery loves company and all that. I might have a lot of video conferences to make, but thanks to her," she nodded at the dinosaur in her arms, "I can't actually go anywhere."

"All right, I'll see you tomorrow then."

Claire found herself holding on to that promise during the ride home. A couple of months before, she would have barricaded herself in her office to work through her problems alone. She wouldn't have wanted anyone; she wouldn't have worried about being secretly watched; she wouldn't have worried about losing anyone. Gently, Claire stroked the dinosaur's scaled flanks as Sarah stirred in her lap and tucked her head under her arm. Outside, night was settling over the island, a growing dome of velvet dark as Claire stared at it through the window, and thought about how so much had changed.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, better late than never. It's not as action packed as the last two, I'm afraid. But it does set up several important things that will eventually come to shape the plot. I'm going to be a bit slower on the updates for this story because I'm wrapping up my Elder Scrolls: Skyrim fanfic which I suspect might end at close to 280,000 words or so (how did I ever manage that?). However, I am firmly team Clawen all the way and JW 2 is coming! So I'll definitely be updating. A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed and gave my Muse a much needed kick in her arse. You guys are the best, really and you keep my fires burning. I hope you enjoy this chapter too!_

 _A couple of you mentioned wanting to see more of Alex and, if you play in my Skyrim pool, you know who I have in mind when I imagine him. I'm just shamelessly addicted that way. But he will appear as and when the plot dictates he is necessary. More of you were interested in Sarah and her abilities. That will be served very soon in upcoming chapters. I cannot wait for that actually. It will bring us closer to the events of the movie. Speaking of which, there's one right here, with this story's spin on it._

 **IMPRINT**

 **XII.**

They wouldn't let her go back to the apartment.

Instead, they had taken her straight to the lab in spite of her repeated requests and if Claire had ever had any doubts about Security being controlled by InGen, they were definitely over and done with by the time she was presented to a blank-faced Henry who wanted to run a standard check on the Indominus to ensure that she had not been hurt.

"She's not hurt," Claire said, exasperated enough to almost run a blood-flecked hand, courtesy of Sarah, through her hair. She caught herself just in time. "This is from the pig." The pig that Sarah had slaughtered, her teeth and claws going through flesh like hot knives through butter. And this was the dinosaur she was insisting on bringing home with her. Claire looked at Sarah, and the Indominus looked back at her. Mutual respect. And even then, Owen and Barry had had to stop playing ball with the girls. But that was still someway off for her and Sarah. "You can watch the footage," she said pointedly. Something he and Vic Hoskins had been doing ever since she had gotten the Indominus. But she kept that part somewhere in the back of her throat, where she eventually managed to swallow it.

"It's just standard practice. I need to put it in the report." He waved that line at her even as the doctors came and put Sarah through a battery of tedious examinations that were utterly unnecessary. What was more was that Claire had to stay because no one else could handle the dinosaur. This, Claire thought grimly as she wiped the blood off Sarah because otherwise, they could not conduct a visual examination of her skin to ascertain that she really wasn't bleeding, was a goddamn delay tactic while InGen tech guys were probably swarming her apartment in a bid to fix their hidden cameras and restore the live feed which had been dead ever since her talk with Jarvis.

By the time she was done, more than two hours had passed. She was sweating, in spite of the air-conditioning. She was starving because none of them had remembered to eat, thanks to Sarah's great escape into the raptor paddock. She was also furious because the sight of Henry within more than six feet of Sarah made her blood boil. Maybe it was simple outrage at Henry's utter lack of decency—both for the cameras and the bizarre mix of genes that he had poured into Sarah—or it might have been those protective instincts Karen talked about which kicked in with motherhood (she reckoned all that babysitting and love counted for something). Claire had never wanted to do violence to anyone, not really. The sight of Henry, standing there in his pristine lab coat with that fixed expression and occasional smile, as though everything was perfectly fine, was testing that.

"Home sweet home," she muttered, leaning against the shut door that she had bolted, as if that would keep out the prying eyes. Thanks to Pepper and Jarvis, she was safe, for now. Owen too, she thought and it made the edges of her mouth curl up the slightest bit. The ghost of that smile faded just as quickly as she imagined breaking the news to him. Walking around her apartment, Claire had to admit that whoever had been inside was good. The place looked practically untouched. She bent slightly, reaching down to straighten the edge of the box that she kept Sarah's squeaky toys in so that its corner aligned with the corner of the coffee table. Almost untouched. It was a good thing she was so particular about little details.

Part of her wanted to scrub the entire place to wash out the scent of intrusion that hung in the air. The other part of her was just tired in a way that went beyond the bone. She had been so sure for those unbearably long moments that she was going to lose Sarah. In the silence of the place, she could hear the screech of tires burning on the road. The scream of a horn unheeded as her mother slammed her palm down on it. Claire shuddered so hard Sarah gave a small inquiring warble from the sofa she was curled up on. "You're tired too huh?"

There was already a disc inside the player and within a few seconds, the pull of violin strings and piano keys chased away lingering ghosts and Claire felt the ache in her shoulders while she fetched her sleeping clothes from the wardrobe. As she walked past the sofa, she brushed a light hand over Sarah's head. She did it again, running her fingers over the stubby protrusions that already felt coarser than the rest of her scales, save for those osteoderms that were sprouting in increasing number over her back and even at the base of it where her tail began. Her hand slipped down Sarah's neck, scratching as the baby dinosaur shamelessly arched it, rubbing against Claire's hand as she soaked up the attention. With a sigh, Claire sat down, realising that her bath was going to be somewhat delayed. "You really worried me back there," she whispered, almost drowned out by the loud purring of the Indominus. "Don't ever do that again." Sarah bumped a rough snout against her cheek and Claire caught her face. "But I think you're going to want to anyway." Sarah warbled, almost as though in agreement, before shaking free.

Leaving her to wrestle with and chew on the largest of her squeaky toys, Claire was about to close the bathroom door when the doorbell chimed. "Oh God. I didn't hear that," she groaned to Sarah whose head popped up over the back of the sofa before the dinosaur promptly launched herself at the door. "This is not happening," Claire griped as she made herself walk to the door. "Sarah, back up. Back to the sofa."

She had to move into the curious dinosaur's space before the command registered. Opening the door by a crack, Claire steeled her face into a mask when she saw that it was Alex Harrington. The man who had her job. 'Whoa, whoa. Down, Dearing.' It was a temporary arrangement. Alex showing up was just one more straw on the back of a very trying day. 'You got this. You can handle this.'

"Claire, I thought I should come by."

It wasn't the first time she had heard Alex's voice but Lowery was right; he had an accent that could cut glass. And cheekbones that could do that too. Those photographs in his resume and at various social functions (which she had seen because she had gotten Zara to dig for information about her replacement) hadn't done him justice at all. No wonder Zara, cool and composed Zara who was now temporarily assigned to Alex, had actually sounded slightly giddy when Claire had called up to check if he had been treating her well.

She continued to keep the door open by just that sliver of space. "You shouldn't have. We're fine. The asset is completely unharmed, as I'm sure Henry would have informed you by now."

"I know. But I also happen to know that you haven't eaten and I thought that since this is the first time we're meeting in the flesh..."

"Not to mention that as the Park Operations Manager it would be best to ascertain if the report is true with your own eyes..."

"It comes with the territory, I'm afraid. So I brought food."

He held up a beautifully embossed bag that looked like it might have come from a designer store and her stomach betrayed her by growling. He had takeaway. From Nobu.

"Is that a yes I hear?"

Cheeky bugger. Claire narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. "The asset might think you are food."

"You insisted that she come back to the apartment with you. If I had my way, she would be in Paddock 11 right now."

In other words, if Alex didn't think she could handle Sarah, he would put in a strong word to have her removed.

"Don't look at me like that, Claire. Even Zara thinks the Indominus should go to the paddock. She didn't see the footage but everyone in the Control Centre saw her kill that pig. She's still with you because we can't get hold of Mr Masrani right now and Dr Wu has not said anything yet."

Probably because Henry and his two faces were still deliberating the pros and cons of taking the Indominus away or leaving it with her, Claire thought sourly. "Give me a minute." Looking away from the door, she told Sarah to stay, holding up her hand to show that she meant business. "Stay," she repeated, widening the door slowly as Sarah, on high alert and up on all fours with those almost feather-like thin spines sticking straight up, continued to remain on the sofa. "Okay, you can come in now, Alex."

She didn't block the way, but stood a few steps ahead of Alex, just to make it clear to Sarah that she was not to touch this man. The security personnel she was used to; Owen, she knew very well; Barry, Sarah had learnt, was off limits as were the paddock crew. She would never be allowed around people, not the way the other herbivores were. But for a natural born hunter to learn that people were not prey...

Sarah let out a loud bark, shaking her head sharply and Claire recognised it as an intimidation tactic. Then she roared. To his credit, Alex did not run. He looked slightly pale, but he stood his ground as she stood hers and Claire had to give him credit for that. "Sarah!" she warned, staring at the dinosaur until those spines went down slightly and the bunched muscles around those pale shoulders and legs relaxed. The Indominus Rex sat back down on the sofa, never taking her eyes from the stranger.

"She'll listen. But she is a dinosaur, after all. I don't think it's a good idea if you stay for dinner."

"I didn't intend to." Without looking away from Sarah, Alex passed her the bag. "There's a panic button inside there. In case anything happens and there's no time to scream, push it. And don't use the deadbolt anymore." He flashed her a quick smile. "You have four very well-trained men guarding you round the clock, regardless of whatever impression you might have received at the paddock today. And they now have tasers with them."

Those were meant for Sarah, but neither Claire nor Alex wanted to say that out loud. She thanked him for the food, shut the door, satisfied herself with using the generic door lock which any half-assed thief could probably pick with two bobby pins—or so the movies would have one believe—and walked straight to the bathroom after depositing the food on the table. There, she filled up the bath with hot water and a ton of bubble bath melt. For perhaps the third time in her life, Claire dropped her clothes on the floor, promising silently that she would pick them up later. Then she sank into the bath, inhaling the smell of honey and mango, and closed her eyes.

... ... ...

On hindsight, that had been a mistake. Claire sneezed, blew her nose into a piece of Kleenex and binned the tissue. She was on the brink of giving up sanitising her hands because apparently, this was the Cold of Doom that was never going away, no matter how many tablets she popped and the fact that three days had already passed. And she was already over the limit for the number of tablets she could ingest for today. It was in the best interests of her kidneys and liver that she reluctantly put the medicine away. It had been in Owen's best interests that she had forbidden him from coming over, although she couldn't quite say the same about her ridiculous heart that fell at the thought of not seeing him. Instead, they made do with calls.

She had fallen asleep in the tub and not drowning in it was the silver lining she kept reminding herself about as she took calls, wrote emails, wrote reports, wrote more reports about reports and fended off no less than three members of the board who called to say that it was time for Sarah to go. Mr Masrani had the last word, it was his park after all but there was some emergency and he had flown off to Germany on some InGen business and his assistant insisted that unless death was involved, he was not to be disturbed. Claire thought she smelled whiffs of a deal going sour but it wasn't her place to ask, although she knew the signs quite well.

Lab staff came and went with food for Sarah and for a moment, a distracted Claire watched her attack a pile of food twice her size. She was eating up to eight times a day now, and that included nightly feeds. Which meant that there was a lot more poop. Luckily for her, she had a cleaning crew at her beck and call and that was one service that Claire never failed to use.

As for the matter of her own lunch... The hot corn and crab soup was now tepid. Claire made a face but she forced herself to swallow the lukewarm liquid, along with two more Vitamin C pills. Putting the bowl in the sink, she washed her hands and felt her neck and the area under her jawline. The flesh was tender and slightly swollen and she felt unusually warm all over. Great, she was running a temperature. But there was still work to be done.

Sinking back into the soft leather of her chair, Claire let her head drop forward as she laid it on the cool glass top of the table. Normally, she would never have done that. But a girl had to have a day off and she was so tired and it was barely even one in the afternoon...

She lifted her head up just in time to realise that her phone was buzzing. That she hadn't even felt the buzz informed her she really had fallen asleep. It was Mr Masrani.

She snatched up the device. "Mr Masrani," she said, wincing at the sound of her less than stellar pronunciation, thanks to the Cold of Doom.

"Claire, are you sick?"

"Just a cold, it's nothing important. Thank you for getting back to me."

He sighed heavily. "The board is deluging me with calls and all warnings about all sorts of bad publicity and costs in terms of damage control should the Indominus Rex actually turn on you. That's not something we can keep from the public. Did she actually kill a pig?"

Claire resisted the urge to say that it was just a small one. "She did."

"And she snuck herself into the raptor paddock?"

"She did that too. She feigned sleep when she had the leash in her mouth and she managed to chew through that and get in through the bars. It was my fault, Mr Masrani. I was making a call—"

"I'm not here to find fault. I have to say I like her spirit though. Truth be told, I've not read all the reports but Alex sent a message and he said you did nothing wrong, except protest vehemently against immediate action by ACU."

Claire waited with baited breath for the hammer to fall.

"But it looks like you were right. You saved the research programme and somehow got the asset out. She listens to you? She sounds highly intelligent."

Considering that she had two strains of monkey DNA from two branches of primates renowned for their intelligence, she wasn't surprised. But she could not tell him that. "She does, more or less. Less on bad days. She is what she is, a dinosaur. And Mr Grady helped, a lot, with getting the Indominus out."

"You think you'll be safe with her? I would have thought you would have jumped at the chance of resuming your former duties."

She had more or less expected this. She had asked herself the same question. "I love my job, Mr Masrani. But right now, Sarah needs me more. She won't turn on me." Not yet anyway. "She's been around someone twenty-four hours every day since she hatched. Putting her into Paddock 11 would be the equivalent of...of solitary confinement. I play her classical music every night before she sleeps, she likes salmon, she's been going for walks in the Innovation Centre after closing hours and she's getting to know the raptors and they actually can communicate."

"I know," he said quietly. "Victor Hoskins has been in touch as well. He says the Indominus' interaction with the raptors will be invaluable to the research."

'I bet he did.' Claire's grip on the phone tightened. It was probably one of the very few available options left for him and Henry to monitor Sarah and gauge her progress, to watch for whatever it was they were anticipating would happen. Again, she bit her tongue and held it in because the last thing she wanted was for Simon Masrani to get Pepper on the phone and start a corporate war. The lawsuit might run into the millions and her life would be over, not to mention probably her friendship with Pepper. "He might be right. Mr Grady said no one has ever observed a raptor pack with their young and by the looks of it, they regard Sarah as a juvenile raptor. That was why Henry let me continue visiting with her."

"It would a first ever, when we submit the research at conferences, help us understand these animals who remind us of how very small we are, how new," he mused and Claire could picture that faraway look in his eyes, the fascination he wore so openly and unashamedly for a man who moved in very powerful circles. There was something of the boy that Simon Masrani had been and still was when he talked about his dinosaurs, a wonderment that had never died. Hammond must have had that, she realised. That was why Simon Masrani had been the individual he had entrusted his dream to.

"Mr Masrani, remember when I told you that we don't have a way to gauge if the animals enjoyed life here at the park?"

"Of course I do. And you couldn't stop talking about how to offset costs."

She gave a brief laugh. "That's why you hired me. I was wrong though; there is a way to measure the dinosaurs' enjoyment." If it had been any other boss, if it had been her previous boss—God forbid—she would have rather swallowed her tongue. But because it was Simon Masrani, she spoke. "You can see it in their eyes."

He said nothing for the longest time and Claire dug her feet into the carpeting, felt the plush material between her toes as she wondered if she'd badly miscalculated.

"Alright Claire. You get to keep the asset until the stipulated time. Find a way to get her safely in and out of the raptor paddock; you may have to work with InGen on that—"

Relief was a sweet tidal wave. "Of course, of course." She was nodding although he couldn't see her. "Thank you."

"Take good care of the dinosaur, Claire. At least with her, we won't have to worry about the park's profitability. We can keep it open for the public and know that the animals are well cared for. " She sensed the strain rather than heard it.

"Is everything alright, Mr Masrani?"

"No, but I'll try to fix it. Just remember what I said."

"I'll take good care of Sarah."

"You need her, Claire, as much as she needs you. And I trust your judgement. That's why I changed my mind. Do something about that cold."

He cut the call and left her with a stunned look on her face. Then she smiled, so wide that it almost hurt. She got to keep Sarah with her for now. No one would take her away. No Paddock 11 where the only living things were plants and the occasional birds who would never go there once Sarah took up permanent residence. That bridge had to be crossed but...

Claire snatched up the Indominus from the corner where she was attempting to root up the edge of the carpeting. Sarah protested indignantly and pushed against Claire but there was little force behind it because Sarah was a serial cuddler. "But not today," Claire breathed. She was about to plant a kiss on that rough white snout, then thought better of it. All the dinosaurs had been altered genetically to better protect them against modern viruses and germs but Claire didn't want to take changes. Instead, she flipped Sarah onto her back on the sofa and tickled her belly. The Indominus Rex warbled mightily, her claws coming to encircle Claire's wrists, feet gently kicking in the air as she wriggled playfully. She would have to remember this, Claire told herself. She would, and hopefully against the odds, Sarah would too.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Everything else belongs to their respective creators, owners and producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: She is not supposed to be there when the egg hatches. But she is the first thing it sees when the shell breaks. She never wanted to be a mother. Suddenly, she is.

 _A/N: Hey guys, I managed another chapter so here it is. Thanks to everyone for the reviews and love; they helped push this chapter into being and I hope this makes you guys happy. There's a lot more Owen here, plus some Sarah. Some quick references to the Avengers and Jurassic World movies as well, and another one to "Roverandom", an adorable tale by Tolkien. I trust most of you would get there the last quarter of the story is coming from but just in case there's confusion, this is what is responsible for it. At the start of the movie, Claire's in the lift and she says "Erica Brand deserves better". That made me sit up and I was like "Oh. She's not exactly what she appears to be." I thought it was bloody fantastic actually. Plus, she never once screamed or yelled or threatened Zara after the latter lost her nephews. So there, there's the basis for what I've done._

 _A quick note on reviews: Someone mentioned moving against InGen. At the moment, I believe I've made it clear why it's not possible. For better or worse, there's a deadlock. However, I believe some of you picked up on Simon Masrani's woes as an indicator of where this is going. That rocks my socks off. :)_

 **IMPRINT**

 **XIII.**

There was no need to make changes to the raptor paddock so that Sarah would have a safe way in and out. "She can use the interaction stalls. They have doors to let the raptors out into the open, although we've never had to use them." Owen was comfortably sprawled out on the sofa, much to the annoyance of Sarah who had planted herself firmly between them right in the middle. When he had offered her a hand to sniff, she had done so with all the hauteur of a queen before proceeding to show him her back and rump. "So you can put her in through there and when we need her to come out, she goes in, the secondary doors close and you can open a stall door to retrieve her. So it's all good, and there's no additional cost involved."

Her little Indominus chaperone was getting sleepy though. Owen had arrived in the evening right after dinner; Alex had been around to discuss how they could manage InGen's request that the hybrid be allowed to mix with the raptors. Sarah had just gobbled more than twice her body weight in food and as was now the pattern with every meal, she was seized with the desire to sleep. If not for Owen, she would have been the one sprawled out on the sofa, usually with her tail hanging off it while Claire used those moments of quiet to get some work done or just read because Sarah treated any book in her hands as yet another toy. She had torn up "The Mists of Avalon" before Claire could even get ten pages into it. Claire could hardly say that she had been overcome with grief; fantasy was definitely not her genre. But it had been a nice gesture on Zara's part to alleviate her boredom and it had been a personal copy which Claire promptly replaced with a quick order to Amazon for the latest, glossiest edition.

"Claire?" He had caught her drifting, thinking of more pleasant things than the highly unpleasant moment that she had been dreading ever since her cold had died a total and complete death and her sinuses cleared. The moment that happened, Owen had told her to expect him over and he was as good as his word, showing up the very next day. Apparently, she hadn't been the only one to do any missing. Or so she hoped, Claire cautioned herself. Still, she was pretty sure...

"She's falling asleep." She nodded at Sarah who was fighting to keep her eyes open. The third membrane flicked back and forth over her eyes each time she opened and closed those bright orbs. "If you get up from the sofa, she'll be convinced I'm safe from your evil clutches and stop fighting it."

"I'll show you evil clutches, Dearing," Owen muttered without any bite.

"All in good time, Mr Grady," she countered, making a poor show of trying not to smile as Owen dragged himself up. He'd had a long day; the raptors had been missing Sarah and were more antsy than usual each time they realised she wasn't with Owen. Blue had misbehaved a couple of times and Owen had had to file three reports, one to Vic Hoskins who apparently wasn't on the island and two for the board to review. "Now make yourself scarce."

He scowled and went to the kitchen, where he proceeded to help himself to the organic grapes she had ordered in a bid to squash her cold. Gently, Claire stretched out her hand and scratched Sarah under her chin, just at the tip. It was magic; the Indominus was fast asleep in under two minutes, breathing deeply and Claire could swear she could hear very faint tiny snores coming from Sarah as the breath whistled in and out from between her teeth.

What followed next was a well-practiced manoeuvre she had mastered after several weeks of trying. Very, very stealthily, Claire inched herself towards the edge of the sofa, her eyes fastened on the dinosaur. Every time Sarah moved, Claire stopped and then started once she had stilled again. When she was an inch from landing up on the floor, she braced her feet firmly on the ground and in one smooth motion, pulled herself up and away from the seat. Sarah remained sleeping and Claire did a mini fist pump as she tiptoed away before remembering that Owen was there. His soft chuckle made her blush. "You wouldn't understand unless your raptors clung to you when they were little," she whispered to him as they retreated to her room. Owen closed the door behind her.

"Well, they did, at least when I tried to get out of the paddock. I used to have scratches on my hands from prying them off. Barry and I would toss food and I would make a run for the gate. The bars still had that wire mesh across them to stop the girls from getting out. But not Blue, she never fell for it."

"She wanted affection more than food."

Wistfulness glanced over Owen's face. "I'm not so sure about now. Sarah's coming to four months and she still wants a ton of physical affection from you. My girls were starting to grow out of it around this time actually."

That was the opening she needed. Taking a deep breath, Claire sat on her bed and patted the space beside her, running her hand over the embroidered silk coverlet. "I have something I need to tell you." She winced; it reminded her of a clichéd scene from one of those movies which was so bad it was actually good. Karen made her watch those whenever she visited, before the work got too much. For a while, Claire wasn't sure if she had been in love or hate with Jason Statham.

Owen frowned faintly but he took a seat next to her. Then his beautiful eyes widened in shock. "Oh no, you're pregnant."

"Owen!"

"I'm sorry babe, I should have warned you. Looking at me like you want to eat me up could have that effect on your ovaries and boom." He spread out his fingers, mimicking the spread of fireworks as they exploded and Claire glared down her nose at him.

"Excuse me—"

"You kind of look like Sarah when you do that."

"But you were the one looking at me like I was dinner."

"So the feeling's mutual," he grinned shamelessly at her before his gaze dropped away to the huge bed with its cream and aquamarine sheets and duvet. "I remember promising to show you my evil clutches. The setting looks about right for that..."

There were important things, earth-shatteringly important things, things of universal import—okay, maybe that was stretching it but Claire clung to whatever she could to remind herself not to fall for Owen's smoke on whiskey voice that he was pouring on like rich dark honey fresh from the honeycomb. She was sitting down and getting weak in her bloody knees. Anymore and her ovaries really might go up in flames and did Owen have to lean in so close and still smell so good after a day at work—

"Monkeys," Claire blurted out. Hindsight might inform her that she could have gasped or even wheezed the word out but that was for another time in the future to feel embarrassed about. Regardless, it worked. Owen's mouth stopped an inch from hers.

"I could have sworn I heard you say 'monkeys'."

Claire placed a hand on his chest to ease him away. God that felt good. Hot flesh and hard muscle with the rhythmic beating of his heart that sheared right through his shirt to brand her palm. Tactical error, she told herself as she squirmed away, one that she would have to remember not to make again. "I did say 'monkeys'."

"Is that your safe word or something?"

He actually looked intrigued, even though his mind was clearly in the gutter, where hers promptly joined his. "No," she protested so loudly that for a moment, she feared she would wake Sarah. Folding her arms over her chest so that she wouldn't press her hands to her burning face, Claire took a deep breath that did a lousy job of calming her madly racing pulse. "You said Sarah likes a great deal of physical affection. We have cuddle times, like fixed sessions where I have to pet her and she really likes bath time as well. Not so much the water but when I use a cloth or a sponge."

"And this has to do with monkeys because...?"

"Don't monkeys build social bonds through grooming and touching? It's pretty prevalent in most primate species, isn't it? And Sarah...well...she doesn't behave entirely like a dinosaur because," Claire paused, bit her lip and forced out the rest, "because she's not."

The shock followed by horror and then anger that Owen was visibly experiencing was definitely real this time. "InGen filled the gap in the genomes with monkey genes?"

"And then some."

"How do you know this?" Owen demanded.

She couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him at that moment that she couldn't tell him. "That can wait, please. I'm more concerned about Sarah."

She spoke softly, aware that she didn't need to add to the volatile mix of emotions she could feel radiating from him. For a moment she had half-expected Owen to storm off, either to the lab to demand answers or just away from her but she should have known better. He had more control than that.

He took a sharp breath; the line of his jaw reminded her of granite. She could tell when he reined in his temper, because some of that hardness disappeared. "Alright Claire. Go on."

"Apart from the T-Rex and Velociraptor genomes, Sarah has..." She quickly rattled off the list of dinosaurs that Jarvis had supplied her with. "Tree frog and cuttlefish, along with snake DNA."

He looked at her for a long moment before turning towards the door, as though he could see Sarah through it.

"What? What is it?" She knew he had hit on something. She could feel it.

"I get why they've thrown some of the deadliest carnivores into the mix to make a new attraction. But there's really no need for the rest. My girls have different strands of iguana and even avian DNA but not all of these in one animal."

Claire caught herself picking at silvery flower stitched onto the coverlet and put her hand in her lap instead. "I've been doing some reading up. I have no idea what the tree frog and snake DNA is meant to do but cuttlefish do experience incredible growth because their lifespans are so short. I presume Henry has worked whatever magic he knows to eliminate that while keeping the accelerated growth part. That's why we've estimated that we can show her in about two years to the public."

"Nice work, Sherlock."

She gave him a look and shrugged. "Elementary, Watson."

They didn't laugh but the lightness of the moment took more edge off the tension. "Are you going to tell me what you're thinking about?" she prompted.

He cracked his knuckles and cleared his throat. "All those different dinosaur genes make Sarah a perfect killing machine. I don't know what Henry Wu wants with the other animal DNA but monkeys—"

"Capuchin and chimpanzee, to be precise."

"Monkeys and apes are highly social creatures. You add that to the Velociraptor's pack instincts and you have an animal with an enhanced desire for structure in a group and a powerful need to bond with another. Capuchins are considered the most intelligent of the New World primates; they use them in labs all the time. Chimpanzees are widely regarded as the cleverest of all primates. They improvise, they problem solve, and they pick up social traits from the people they interact with or those that are taught to them in experiments. They can take orders from people."

Claire stared at him, her gut starting to churn. "You're thinking...they've made Sarah into some kind of...weapon?" Her knuckles were starting to hurt because she was pressing down on them so hard.

"It certainly looks that way. The capuchin and chimpanzee DNA is completely unnecessary. They're not filling in gaps in the genome; they're augmenting and a hybrid is a perfect front for covering whatever it is they wanted to do with her. The research with the raptors showed that pack animals can take orders, but the human has to be the alpha. Even then, I can't get into the cage with them, not anymore and that's a problem, according to Hoskins and his grand plans to use dinosaurs as soldiers." Owen got up and paced the room restlessly before sitting back down. "Monkeys and apes are wild animals but they can be domesticated, sometimes to a great extent. More than a raptor, that's for sure."

When he put it that way, it sounded almost plausible. Hoskins wanted something vicious and unstoppable in the field and with her mix of DNA drawn from some of the most famous theropods to walk the earth, Sarah would fit right into that slot. Presumably Henry was hoping that the primate DNA would offset enough of the dinosaur DNA to enable someone to control her, to give orders. It was all probability and hypothesis that they were waiting for facts and reality to confirm. It was madness.

"Henry did mention wanting to put Sarah through a series of tests to see how intelligent she is and what she's really capable of. I shut him down."

"He'll try again," Owen said grimly. "He'll want to know what exactly his latest creation is capable of."

They both sat in silence, as though winded from the conversation. But there was more and they knew it.

"So are you going to tell me how you found out about Sarah?"

It was crunch time. "No. That conversation is never going to happen." That way, if the truth ever came out, at least Owen could genuinely plead ignorance although she wasn't sure how much that would help him.

"Are you trying to protect me, Claire Dearing?"

"Someone has to, Mr Grady" she quipped and her smile almost reached her eyes. There was no easy way to say this. "Finding out about Sarah really was the result of another discovery. Henry said something, I got suspicious and ...found a way to confirm whether my suspicions were true. And they were. Henry and Hoskins had my apartment under surveillance. There were cameras in here and they bugged my handphone too. That's not the case now—"

"Son of a bitch!" Owen exploded as he shot to his feet. Claire didn't think; she just threw herself at him and latched onto his arms. "Let me go!"

"No!" She resisted as he tried to pry her off without hurting her. She could feel the strength in his hands. Claire wasn't a petite girl by any shot but Owen dwarfed her and made her feel small. If he wanted to, he could have sent her flying across the room. "Owen, we need a plan."

"I have a plan!"

"Attack is not a plan!" She planted her feet on the ground and pushed him as hard as she could away from the door. "You probably could break Henry's neck before security personnel get to you but I need you and jail is not the best place from which to help me." Not to mention that she wouldn't be able to help him either and that would just kill her.

Owen was breathing hard, his eyes bright and livid like a swirling storm laced with lightning. He was a storm and she was holding onto him only because he was letting her. He moved and she clung harder to him, digging her fingers into his biceps. "Okay, Claire. Okay. I won't do anything stupid. I just...give me a minute."

Immediately she stepped back, stepped out of his space and he spun around, one hand on his hip, the other clenching and unclenching. The sound of his fist crashing into the wall made her jump and from beyond the door, she heard a sharp bark. Sarah was awake. On the way out, Owen punched the wall again and she knew he was imagining that it was Henry's face, maybe Hoskins' as well.

The Indominus Rex had already hopped down from the sofa and was racing to her. She knelt to pick Sarah up but the dinosaur brushed her attempts aside with a snout that was industriously sniffing at Claire's legs and arms before inspecting her shoulders and face. She was checking her for injuries, Claire realised. "I'm okay, I'm okay," she murmured as Sarah warbled in her ear before scooting off to the bedroom to see what Owen was doing. Apparently whatever she saw satisfied her because she came back and let Claire pick her up and take her back to the sofa.

It took the better part of an hour and classical music to put Sarah back to sleep. Carefully, Claire removed herself from the sofa and went to the kitchen where she filled a small cloth with ice and tied up the loose ends. When she got to the room, Owen looked up and she was relieved to see that at least he didn't look enraged now. That had been pretty frightening. Wordlessly, she took his hand. The knuckles were swollen and his skin was scraped. She pressed her homemade ice pack gently to it and for some reason, she recalled a similar moment years ago when Zach had been five and she had been playing with him outside when he had fallen and scraped his knees. She had sat him on the kitchen table while she held the ice to his knee and told him a story about a little dog whom a mean wizard had turned into a toy and who had to find a way to become a real dog again. He'd stopped crying at the end of it and bravely let her put antiseptic on his wounds once the swell had gone down.

"I got blood on your wallpaper," he muttered. "Sorry about that."

"It's nothing." She waved it away, concentrating on moving the ice evenly over his bruised flesh.

"So did you mean it?"

She looked up inquiringly.

"When you said you needed me."

It was the tiniest lilt in the way he sounded, the slight crinkle of laugh lines at the corners of his eyes, the warmth of a smile that she could see he was holding back. All of it made her heart beat faster. Curling the fingers of her other hand around his, Claire held his gaze. "Yes. I need you." Not just for fighting the monsters that were men driven mad by their own brilliance and ambition, not just for navigating the world of dinosaurs and their behaviours. There was a lump in her throat that those words couldn't get past even though she swallowed hard but Owen seemed to understand, seemed to hear them anyway because he slipped his fingers into the gaps between hers. It felt closer than a kiss somehow and she knew he felt it too.

"Okay. So what's the plan then?"

"We'll need to come up with one together." And to do that, they would need to assemble all their facts. "My apartment was under watch from the moment I got Sarah. All those tests in the lab were meant to monitor Sarah's health but it's clear that Hoskins and Henry have been waiting for something and whatever it is that they're waiting for, it's not happened. Hence, Henry's suggestion to run those intelligence tests on her."

"Which then makes the notion of them weaponising the Indominus more plausible."

"Exactly." Claire nodded.

"You're sure this place is entirely clean right?"

"Positive. And your place is secure too, along with your computer and your phone."

"Claire Dearing, you are protecting me."

"Call it a bad habit."

"No way. A man could get used to a beautiful woman whose got his back covered."

Heat touched her cheeks. "You were asking about this place being free from InGen eyes and ears because?"

"Because now when I think about it, the reason why Hoskins might be so keen to have Sarah in with the raptors probably is because that's the only way he and Wu can watch her now."

"Along with any walks we take at night in the Innovation Centre."

They both had the same thought. "If anything's going to happen, it will probably be in the raptor paddock," Owen said.

"There's nothing I can do about that. It's standard practice for all paddocks to be extensively monitored and if I had blocked that feed—"

"I'm not questioning your decision, Claire. And the last thing I would want is for you and your mysterious source to get in trouble with Simon Masrani. The raptors seem to have a propensity for keeping Sarah hidden in the trees and grass; on Isla Sornar as well the survivors reported that there wasn't a single juvenile raptor spotted. Maybe that might help, or delay whatever it is Hoskins and Wu want to see."

That was a thought worth keeping amidst a sea of troubling ones. "They'll know something's up though. But like me, they can't say a word to Mr Masrani." A frustrated sigh escaped her. "I've been thinking about how I could tell him but my hands are tied. Everything I know about Sarah has only got to do with the Park side of matters, like the paddock construction, how much to feed her, what to feed her, publicity, sponsorship. I don't know how much freedom Mr Masrani gave Henry although I'm pretty damned sure he wouldn't have signed off on making dinosaurs into weapons. Even if I managed to, by some miracle, get a DNA sample off the island and send it for testing to show him what kind of strange cocktail of genes Henry has come up with, it might not work and I'll be dead under the weight of the massive lawsuit which would result."

Owen took the ice pack from her and set it on the bed. That she didn't mind that it was probably going to result in a huge wet spot was testament to just how worried she was. "Hey, hey. We'll figure out a way to tell him. We just have to wait for the right moment."

"When will be the right moment?"

"I don't know," he confessed. "Maybe if Sarah does whatever it is Hoskins and Wu have been waiting for. We could report any anomalies that aren't dinosaur attributes to Mr Masrani. That way, you're in the clear because you're doing the job he gave you and if it turns out that he doesn't mind having a dinosaur that InGen could use as a living weapon—"

"I'll quit," she blurted out, shocking both of them.

"You would?"

She would, actually. "It's wrong, taking dinosaurs, taking animals and modifying them into war machines. The world's a different place now, what with the invasion of New York and gods and aliens and super soldiers but..." She looked down, a frown pinching her brows together. "Some things just shouldn't be done and some lines can't be crossed. I might not be able to stop it but I can't be a part of that."

"That makes two of us."

Now it was his turn to shock her. "You'd leave the raptors?"

Owen looked down at their joined hands. "I don't want to. But I'm guessing the discovery that the raptors can take orders probably prompted Hoskins into working with Wu on creating a dinosaur they felt might be more manageable than the girls."

She tugged her hand free and touched his cheek, making him look at her. "Oh Owen, this isn't your fault. Even Mr Masrani thinks the programme is just for presentations at conferences and for contributing to the body of research."

"I knew the endgame, Claire. I should have guessed—"

She took his chin firmly in hand. "Owen Grady, you listen to me. You had no idea how far Hoskins was going to go, you couldn't be expected to know and you aren't responsible for what he has done. You've been trying to tell him no from the start, for God's sake. This is not your fault," she insisted fiercely.

He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm that she felt with every inch of her skin. "Thanks, Claire."

"It's always my pleasure, Mr Grady."

It wasn't the best plan in the world, but it would have to do for now. They would wait for Hoskins' and Henry's next move, fend them off when it happened and in the meantime, watch Sarah as she grew. For a moment, Claire considered the possibility that whatever abilities Henry thought Sarah had might not actually come to pass. She was an experiment; experiments failed all the time. She might be able to live her life peacefully in her paddock. Then, she tucked away that naïve hope because no more time could be given to such things.

And also because Owen was tracing the lines on her palm with a delicacy she wouldn't have expected from him. She'd always been curious about something and now was probably as good a time as any to ask. "Why me, Owen?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not one for water-cooler conversations but Zara is and you do hear things every now and then, at least about other people... You could have gone out with almost anyone else on the island. So why me?"

"You mean why you when at first glance we seem so different?"

She nodded.

"I could ask you the same thing but I'll answer your question. I saw you around, sometimes at the lab and sometimes at the paddock, or the Centre. You're a good-looking woman but that's not the real reason, just so you know. People I know talked about you and that's what got me interested in you in the first place."

She knew people talked about her. She just chose not to find out what they said.

"What got my attention was that the women liked you. Zara would talk about how you'd let her sit in on business deals and presentations so that she'd get some experience and that you actually cared about her opinion. You gave Vivian time off with pay when she had to go back to San Diego to look after her sick father and you made sure she kept her job even after six months of leave. I know you found out somehow about Julie and Chris being harassed by Sandford and his pals, and that you had something to do with those assholes getting caught and fired."

"I was just doing my job."

"Yeah, you were. And you looked out for other women while being fair to everyone else behind that armour of professionalism you work in. That's what I really liked."

She was used to being valued for securing a deal, or for giving a flawless presentation that no one could criticise because she would cover all her bases and then some. She wasn't used to compliments like this. "Well, the working world can be a tough place for a woman and it helps if we...you know...stick together. For survival, I guess," she muttered. "I mean, so much of our culture tells us that girls and other women are the enemy but I'm not going to buy into that narrative—" She stopped abruptly and flushed. "Oh God, I'm using my mother's lines now."

"She must have been one hell of a woman."

Her mother and the memory of her were Claire's rock and soft spot. To her alarm, her vision started to mist over and she blinked hard, looking away quickly. "Yeah, she was." She tried to smile and it came out bittersweet.

She had never spoken to Owen about her mother until today. It had always been about Karen and Zach and Gray, sometimes high school experiences, what it was like being the youngest in a classroom full of the best and the brightest. The absence of her mother and father was something he had never pressed her about although he must have noticed it.

"You think you're cold." Owen's words caught her the way water caught light. "But you're not. You've got more than fire, Claire Dearing. And I see you."

There was a world in that moment, fathomless and deep. "And you're here to storm my walls, is that it?"

He laughed. "You're not a fortress to be conquered, nor a princess in need of rescuing either." He shifted them closer and she let him move her, let his hand at the base of her spine guide her against him. "I'm here and when you want to, and if I don't screw up, you'll climb down and let me in."

He was right. So she kissed him.


End file.
